Antonia Salmon was brought up in a household dedicated to modern sculpture and architecture, and her childhood was infused with an awareness of form and space. After studying Geography at Sheffield University she trained at Harrow School of Art in Studio Pottery. A year spent studying in the Middle East and India made a deep impression on her approach to work and, soon after her return to England in 1984, the first workshop was set up in Barbican, London. By 1989, in search of a life nearer open countryside she moved to Sheffield from where she shows her work internationally.
Inspired by large landscapes, small organic forms, Classical and 20th Century sculpture, and prehistoric artefacts, Antonia has always been concerned with the search for pure strong forms that reflect certain qualities of being. There is the wish that each work may stand as if poised in space, providing a contemplative, enduring and uplifting quality, and inviting the viewer to reach out and touch.
There is always a tension between finding clarity of line and geometry in the finished forms, with the random surface markings generated from the smoke firing process. The making process starts with a burst of intense creative flow and is followed by months of honing the form to a resolution where it may sit with poise. The making methods are varied: throwing and altering, hand modelling, coiling or construction from slabs. There is a natural rhythm in the transformation from soft clay to the finished hollow forms. Each work is also hand burnished, smoke fired several times and finally wax polished.
"The forms I am most drawn to have clarity of line or strong underlying geometry. All my sculptures are abstract forms. They attempt to capture essences of seemingly opposite qualities: such as of chaos and order, of holding and letting go, of stillness and dynamism. I aim for these qualities in my work as it gives each piece the sense of inner energy which I hope resonates in a non literal way with the viewer."