Hayley Potter
Hayley Potter is a British Artist & Writer working and living in Dorset on the beautiful South West Coast of England. She trained at the Royal College of Art, Norwich School of Art & Design, the Kent Institute of Art & Design and the Imperial College, London. She was taught by artists and writers including Quentin Blake. At art school she was very inspired by artists including Kiki Smith and Paula Rego who imaginatively explore our relationship with nature through anthropomorphism. She enjoyed learning more about illustrators and writers such as Beatrix Potter who are passionate about animals and land. Literature and folklore continue to be a constant inspiration.
Hayley's writing feeds her visual works and the two are often produced together. Her writing is currently mostly poetry and nature writing.
Her work has been exhibited, commissioned and collected internationally. Collections include the Victoria & Albert Museum and The Feminist Library, London alongside many private collections. Clients include The National Trust, Nurture & Bloom Magazine, The Poetry Society, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council, Notre Dame Magazine (USA), The Learned Pig Magazine, Idea Coutore (USA), Amelia’s Magazine (UK), Varoom Magazine, and Intellect Books.
Hayley has delivered lectures about her work across the UK and in S.Korea and Japan. She taught for several art schools, universities, charities and galleries over ten years and developed a creative research portfolio about narrative, nature, folklore, museum collections and the visual arts. This work informed a new chapter in Hayley’s creative practice. Hayley fell in love with the slow but beautiful process of making ceramics, and after swapping her Mac for a kiln, she introduced hand built ceramics to her mixed media studio in 2015.
After so many years of admiring how stories have been preserved and told across ceramics in our museums, galleries and homes Hayley considers it to be a privilege to contribute to that ancient lineage of making.
Alongside creating pieces that involve a complex range of colours and unique processes, Hayley has developed The Wild Blue Collection. A timeless eco conscious collection of hand built semi-porcelain ceramics, original artworks, greetings cards and prints inspired by the Folklore of Plants and Animals. The collection continues to grow, now including some specially commissioned pieces including those inspired by National Trust sites. This work has been featured in the World of Interiors, House & Garden and has been exhibited at Top Drawer London. Hayley continues to dream up a world of magical eco-conscious wild creations intending to inspire people to fall in love with our natural world and the stories that unite us. Because we all protect what we love.
Hayley’s work is available to buy through the studio shop on this website and selected galleries and stockists. A wholesale catalogue of the Wild Blue collection is now available by post, email or by opening an account on this website.
