SARAH ROOMS-HEAPHY
CERAMIC SCULPTOR
My working practise is driven by our coastal environment. I have always loved the inter-tidal spaces, an area part land/part sea, ever changing with the tides ebb & flow, natures weather patterns revealing treasure on every walk.
I am an established ceramic artist, working from my studio in Cambridge, selling works for the last 15 years via galleries, annual ceramic events & competitions. I split my time between coastal visits gathering source material & studio work playing with clay.
My Digswell Arts residency from 2019-2022, acted as catalyst to understanding my artistic ceramic heritage, moving away from smaller collections to one-off contemporary sculpture. The work became increasingly influenced by historical land defences, sea salt corrosion, wild weather dereliction, extreme landscapes of the wild north coast of Cornwall & Scotland, to the devastating soft sands & chalky clay scapes of the Eastern coast. There is a constant battle between nature and our manmade environment, growing more prominent with climate change, pollution, fighting geological structures.
My 2025 Arts Council DYPC (Develop your Creative practise) grant has enabled exploration into larger-scale pieces; challenged my making processes to create sculptural forms using white stoneware, porcelain & black clay; a white canvas taking strong textures & patterns. The work explores the visual aesthetics of the coast, as well as emotional responses; nature’s power; my response to sounds, waves, textures, marks of nature, fragility, coastal erosion, tidal & wave patterns impacting on coastal life.
Developing ideas whilst playing with smaller testers, I continue to explore why I am drawn to the sea, the walks, meditatively absorbed in nature, recharging, re-energising, simplifying, observing the here & now, one step at a time… I collect treasures from the coast, stones, rocks, fossils, shells, and multiple photographs. They inform my work, acting as nostalgic postcards….
Arts Council DYCP 2025
Digswell Arts Alumni (fellow 2019-2022)
Anglian Potters Association
Competitions & events
Solo exhibition, Anthony Fell Antiques and works of Art 2025
Shortlist & exhibited “intertidal-interstices” in Charlotte Fraser award, Holt, 2024
Potfest by the Lake & Haughley Park 2023-2025
Mall galleries – Association of Marine Artists 2023
Turner Contemporary Open – 2022
Raveningham sculpture trail 2022-23
Art in Clay 2012-2018
Ice Age Art, British Museum 2014
La Carouge Ceramic Event, Switzerland. 2015
Archived works sold
Marine House Gallery, Beer, Devon
Cove Gallery Weymouth, Dorset
Cynthia Corbett gallery, London
Flint Gallery, Norfolk
Byard Gallery, Cambridge
VK Gallery, St Ives
Waterperry Gallery, Oxford
CV
2003 City & Guilds Creative Studies (ceramics)level 1 at Richmond ALC
2007 City & Guilds Prof. Development Diploma, level 3. West Herts FE college
2011 City & Guilds Higher Prof Diploma (ceramics) level 4. West Herts FE College
2012 PTLLS – Preparing to teach Lifelong Learning Sector. West Herts FE College
2007-2014 Ceramics technician, & Ceramic tutor, West Herts FE College
2014-2025 Workshops & Demonstrations – Perse School, Cambridge, Potters groups
1991 Fashion & Textiles BA (hons), Nottingham Trent University
Sarah Rooms Heaphy 