Eliana Maria Nelson

Born in Greece, Eliana has been living in the UK since she begun her art studies in 1993. She completed a BA(Hons) in Ceramics & Glass at Buckinghamshire College and an MA in Ceramics at UWI, Cardiff. She now does all of her art in her garden workshop in Somerset and teaches part – time in a local secondary school.

Eliana uses clay for her drawings because it provides a textural and perceptive surface for recording the figure. The nature of the ceramic materials she works with preserves the images with an “aged” but “ageless” quality. Her influences lie in the traditional decorative arts of Greece and the style of iconography.

The principal themes of the work are portrait and figurative drawings on tiles and weathered “sketchbook” forms. Decorative – symbolic patterns, motifs and writing are drawn as part of the compositions. Recently, Eliana has started working with stylising bird motifs inspired by the garden visitors when she works.

The clay drawings are built up by layers of lines and scrapes, and brushstrokes of coloured slips. They go through 2 or more firings and are reworked with colour in between. The final touch is to cover the unglazed work with a thin layer of oil to bring out the colour and protect the surface.