About Christine Cummings
'' I was born on a farm in Lancashire and spent all my childhood surrounded by animals, most of which were pets. My sister and I kept guinea pigs, rabbits, dogs and cats galore, which almost drove my father to insanity. We also kept pigeons, donkeys, goats and our beloved pony. Along side the pets we had commercial pigs, poultry and an abundance of other wildlife.
As a child, I would save my pocket money and buy china animals, so it seems a very natural extension that now, years on, my life continues in the same way with my own studies.
My work is made from a mixture of stoneware and hand-building materials, sometimes mixing in coloured clay which is then fired in raku. Much of my research is done through sketching. I love to capture the simple things in animals, such as a dog with the wind in its ears, or a scratching goat! ''
Christine trained in ceramics at Lancashire Polytechnic. Her final show consisted purely of pig studies and these received an enthusiastic response from visitors, with all her work selling. She anticipated that this would be the beginning of a whole new world of sculptural beasts. However, several years on, she is still captivated mainly by pigs, constantly researching them through photography and sketching. She finds this research both enjoyable and necessary to produce new work. Christine has found plenty of source material in the rare breeds owned by showmen - she finds it much more satisfying to capture the “warts and allness” of a big floppy sow than the cuteness of a piglet. She now also sculpts dogs, goats, sheep and cows in her unique style. The animals are made in a mixture of crank bodied and stoneware clays. Raku and smoke-firing finishes naturally complement the final pieces''
