ENNISKILLEN-born, East London-based artist Padraig Drugan works primarily in ceramics, creating stunning sculptural pieces by combining flowing curvature with volume to evoke a feeling of movement in his art.

Here he tells Jessica Campbell about his background in art, what inspires his pieces, and what art means to him.

What is your artistic background?

Art was one of the few subjects I was any good at when I was a pupil at St. Michael’s, and I owe a debt of gratitude to my art teacher for the encouragement to pursue it further.

I got my first taste of clay at 'the Tech’, as it was known then, under the guidance of Basil Dalton, and I used ceramics as my medium of choice for A-Level art.

After completing an Art Foundation course in Manchester, I did a BA Degree in Fine and Applied Arts, specialising in Ceramics, at York Street, Belfast.

York Street was where I developed a love of hand-building as it allowed me to explore the sculptural possibilities that hide inside a bag of clay.

What inspires your art? How would you describe your artistic style?

I look to nature and organic forms in the world around me for inspiration as I combine flowing curvature with volume, to evoke a feeling of movement in my art.

All of my work begins with a simple pencil mark on paper.

This evolves through a series of rough sketches to drawings depicting the developing ideas from different points of view.

I want the viewer to be curious enough to want to walk around and view the pieces from all angles, so it is important that they look good from all sides.

Be it form or figure, I have to work within the limits that ceramics allows.

Having to make plaster moulds adds its own complications, so I have to bear this in mind at every stage of the process.

Who/what are your biggest influences?

Hans Coper is one of my favourite potters and I have always been a fan of Rodin and Henry Moore.

Living in London allows me access to so much art that I find artistic influences everywhere.

Is there a specific place that you do your work?

After moving to London, I completed a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education and settled for a career in teaching, which I enjoy to this day.

For some time, my creative pursuits took a back seat, and my encounters with ceramics were sporadic and wholly reliant on other people’s facilities.

A few years ago, however, I acquired a kiln and converted a shed at the bottom of my garden into a studio.

This has allowed me to be little more prolific regarding my work, and experimental with my ideas, but as with most artists I know, it is not my ‘bread and butter’, so finding the time isn’t always easy.

What different artistic mediums do you use and which is your favourite?

Drawing has always been important to me and, at art college, I developed a taste for life drawing.

I often use life studies to inform the proportions and linear flows within my figurative pieces.

I dabble occasionally with oil on canvas, but prefer the feel and pliability of fresh clay. I love opening the kiln after a firing to find the end product turn out as I’d hoped.

Sometimes it turns out even better and, of course, the odd time there is disappointment.

Ceramics can be very unforgiving. You can’t get rid of a crack with a brush stroke.

But I love the possibilities that 3D work brings and the challenge of making something beautiful out of a lump of muck.

What are you currently working on?

I have a couple of new pieces on the go but they’re at the early stages of the process.

Once I make a plaster-mould from them, I can make variations using different surface-textures and clay bodies.

I don’t like the mould-making part of the process so much. Too messy.

Do you exhibit your work anywhere?

Over the years I have shown my work in Kuala Lumpur, where I have family ties, and in Dublin and Belfast, and more recently in London.

Where I live in East London, there is quite a thriving art scene, and I have been involved in the E17 Art-Trail since 2015.

Any new artistic ventures planned for 2020?

At the start of this year I was planning to be part of a group show in London, but unfortunately our covidemic put paid to that.

So, hopefully, we’ll have more success in 2021.

I’ve also been in touch with Ciara from Hambly & Hambly regarding her planned sculpture garden.

Great things going on there at Dunbar House.

What are you up to when you aren’t creating art?

I am a teacher by profession which probably affords me more leisure-time than most.

When I’m not busy in my studio, I like the great outdoors.

I’m lucky enough to live in a part of London that is a 10-minute walk away from an expansive forest.

This allows for plenty of family forest walks or bike-rides and has been such a godsend over the lockdown period.

Under normal circumstances I usually spend a few weeks of the year back home - yes, I still think of ‘Skintown’ as home - but I haven’t done any travelling this year, and I am really missing my Fermanagh fix.

What does your art mean to you?

My work is focussed on form rather than function. I use fired clay to immortalise my sculptural ideas, which range from the figurative to what I call ‘abstract pots’.

Although I have been a Londoner for more than half my life, I retain a passion for the music, folklore and art of my home turf.

My use of spirals within the form and in the surface decoration of some of my work reflects this, to some degree, but the spiral is not unique to Irish or Celtic culture, and is a feature within the art of many ancient cultures across the globe.

I like to think there is a more universal appeal to the twists and curls of these pieces.

I don’t claim to make any statement with my work - I just want to create objects which I think have a beauty about them, and hope that others might see that beauty, too.

If they do, then that’s cool; if they don’t, well, that’s cool too.