Artist in Residence: October 2021 - March 2022

Ashleigh Fisk is an artist based in London and East Sussex. Working primarily in ceramics and print, Ashleigh's work also expands into multiple other craft practices within a fine art context. Her work focuses on history, myth and folkloric traditions, seeking cyclical loops of thinking and making revealed through relics and artefacts.

As our first ceramicist in residence, Ashleigh Fisk drew on the rich legacy and ceramic heritage of Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village, which began with Mary Watts’ design of the Watts Chapel and later, expanded pottery enterprise, The Compton Potters’ Arts Guild.

Ashleigh Fisk is a graduate of Slade School of Fine Art, with Mary Watts being one of the first women to study there 150 years earlier. Welcoming an artist from this generation of women graduates to explore the legacy of Mary Watts felt very fitting.

Ashleigh's residency

Throughout her residency, Ashleigh explored the archive, life and legacy of Mary Watts.

Through studio workshops with visitors, staff, volunteers and our Learning programme community partners, Ashleigh guided participants to make multiples of terracotta tiles for a new collaborative project, using Mary Watts's original workshops with Compton villagers as a model. Tiles made were based on Mary Watts’s designs, remade in a smaller way, alongside local influences like design details from the Compton Potters' garden pieces, especially their bird baths and sun dials.

The future outcome of the residency is planned to be a terracotta bench, nestled in the woodlands at Watts Gallery – Artists Village, featuring the tiles made through the residency.

Check out Ashleigh's takeover on our Instagram Stories to find out more. Follow us and Ashleigh on Instagram for further updates on the project.