FELICITY AYLIEFF | Blue Mountains - Lidded Vase

SOLDthrown and glazed porcelain, hand painted with cobalt blue oxide; made by the artist in Jingdezhen, China, 2 pieces 

Felicity Aylieff is an artist of international standing, who has committed the last ten years of her life to pursuing an innate passion for porcelain in Jingdezhen, China. Working and living in the ‘porcelain capital’ of China has proven a truly life-enriching experience. Aylieff has developed her unique practice and achieved extraordinary results through immersion in the culture of her adopted home and forming enduring bonds with the people working the potteries.

Deeply-rooted within a context of traditional Chinese ceramic production, yet immediately contemporary, the work can be found in some of the United Kingdom's most prestigious public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Museum of Wales and the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire.

Aylieff has spent many years investigating historic Chinese cobalt underglaze painting. This vivid blue, made famous in traditional and highly-coveted blue and white export porcelain, has been ingeniously reinterpreted to dramatic effect. Using a wide variety of Chinese brushes, Aylieff treats her monumental vessels like canvases. Inspired by mountainous landscapes and bamboo forests, she freely and expressively paints their surfaces with abstract marks, layering the cobalt to create a sense of depth. She reflects on this as her ‘New Ming'.