Poole Pottery joins forces with award-winning Royal Academician Barbara Rae CBE for unique art-infused designs

These vibrant designs reflecting the unique style of an award-winning artist are the result of a new collaboration with Poole Pottery.

The iconic brand has joined forces with world-renowned Royal Academician painter and printmaker Barbara Rae CBE, who visited the studio to produce some individual works of art, combining her unique style with some of Poole Pottery's signature shapes.

The strong vibrant colours which are associated with the Poole colour palette are based on seascapes and the natural strong colours found in nature which are very compatible with Barbara’s style of work.

She says this was a particular draw for this latest project, which is based on previous paintings inspired by Spain and Ireland.

“The colours used by Poole are so dramatic and the possibilities are endless and now the colour range seems to have expanded to include some of my favourite colours," she says.

Barbara, whose work is exhibited in national museums and public and private collections all over the world, seamlessly adapted to painting on pottery which requires quite a different thought process, approach and application.

“It’s very different because you have to consider the fact that it’s a decorative object, it’s not a painting, so it doesn’t have the same deep meaning," explains the Falkirk-based artist.

"It’s a graphic expression and it’s quite difficult to make that transition from say, a painting or a watercolour into simplifying the subject matter enough so it’s more dynamic and immediate on the piece of ceramic.”

Painting with glazes onto pottery also requires a great deal of consideration in that glaze colours transform dramatically during the firing process.

“It’s like print making in that you are layering colour over colour and you never know how these colours are going to react with one-another," says Barbara, who trained at Edinburgh's College of Art and lectured at Charles Rennie Macintosh's School of Art in Glasgow.

"It’s very peculiar working totally with pastel colours and trying to remember that it’s going to turn out dark blue or black after firing in the kiln!”

Poole Pottery has celebrated ceramic form, design and decoration since it was founded in 1873 and has a reputation for vibrant statement giftware collections.

Still designed and hand crafted in the UK, each piece is created by Poole Pottery’s team of skilled artisans.

Barbara's work is now available to purchase on the Royal Academy's website.