Shaping clay into emotion

Heather’s fine porcelain pieces reference landscape, architecture and material imperfection
She produces functional wares and sculptural vessels with personal narratives
Her artworks have featured in galleries and exhibitions across the USA and Canada

Heather Waugh Pitts is a self-taught ceramicist working primarily in high-fired porcelain with a secondary practice creating functional pieces for chefs. She came to ceramics after a long career in interior design and mural painting, developing her practice independently in her home studio. Heather is inspired by landscape and architecture, referencing bogs, refinery fields and Baroque and Brutalist forms in her pieces. “I use surface, glaze and structure as a language,” she says. Heather’s sculptural vessels use these aspects along with tactility and organic shapes to explore imperfection, memory and the emotional weight objects can carry. Her recent pieces have incorporated layered glazes, carving and fragments of inherited porcelain as she questions what is prized and preserved.

Heather Waugh Pitts is a rising star: she began her career in 2019

Discover her work

Discover her work

Sentinel

Bog

Worthiness

Sentinel 2

Tethered

INTERVIEW

I trained in dietetics and worked in healthcare before moving into painting and interior design. Ceramics came later, through a community studio near my home. When it closed before Covid-19, I built a studio and taught myself through constant experimentation.

Landscape and architecture. I grew up near refinery fields, woods and the sea, and later became interested in Baroque, Gothic and Brutalist architecture. I think of vessels as landscapes in which structure, surface and glaze work together.

I take on functional commissions selectively, mainly with chefs who value handmade work and give me freedom. Vessels are where I feel most open. They allow me to experiment without constraints while remaining materially functional.

The theme of The Power of Objects at a recent exhibition encouraged me to make items tied to my own history. One vessel holds experiences from my early life, including loss, family and love. I do not need to explain it, but I want the object to carry that weight.