Louise McNiff is inspired by vast open moorland and the steep rocky edges that look down onto deep sweeping valleys. Dark patches of tree belt, stone walls and hedges fragment the land. The landscape of The Peak District, is the place that inspires Louise’s work.
Louise McNiff creates prints and produces hand-built ceramics in her studio, situated on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District. Using techniques which draw on her background as a Printmaker, Louise ‘etches’ sgraffito lines into the leather hard clay with handmade tools. Coloured slips are monoprinted, painted and stencilled to build layers of drawing, mark making and colour. She works intuitively, until Louise feels that she has reached a balance of colour, shape, line and the experience of the landscape has been conveyed. The vessels are then taken to stoneware temperature in an electric kiln.
