THE INFLUENCE OF ART 4

Celebrating the recent launch of his new fine jewellery collection, The Impressionists, Zeemou Zeng continues his conversations with friends and colleagues about the value of Impressionist art in their lives. Here he shares insights from potter Claire Finlay.

"Some years ago someone said to me that surely I could not be interested in art because I didn’t frequent galleries and exhibitions. Somewhat taken aback I didn’t reply, but years later I still mull over that question, if indeed it was one, and have come to the realisation that art encompasses far more than mere observation. 

Art is, in fact,  very much part of my life. For forty years I have been getting up early, excited to go into my studio. I started my career in the restoration of ceramics and am privileged to have worked in the Topkapi museum in Istanbul and the private museum Sadberk Hanim musesi on the Bosphorus.  I have since moved from restoration to creating my own pieces and art is now so important in my life that without it I think I would wither away!   

Monet distilled a lifetime of observation and thirty years of living and creating in his garden at Giverny, into his truly magnificent masterpiece of the Nymphéas.  This was his great gift - the eight vast panels created as a symbol of peace.  This is contemplative work on an enormous scale. The onlooker is bathed in luminosity, immersed in colour and the currents of air touching the water and plants.  It is an experience of total immersion, and as such launched a new experience in how art can influence the individual.  Conceptual art, the power of suggestion, using large fields of colour, using the sensuous experience of light and colour in a deeply explorative way.  The trails of influence from Monet’s great Nymphéas reach into so many domains of artistic language. 

Zeemou Zeng The Impressionists dangle earring-"Ultramarine I" inspired by ‘Nymphéas Bleus (Blue Water-Lilies)’ by Claude Monet.

In my pottery, the layered glazes I use to create the blues and greens in my bowls remind me of Monet’s water lilies. I didn’t set out to try and emulate his palate, it just happened as I experimented with different glazes and firing temperatures. I find these colours inspirational."

Nymphéas Bowls by Claire Finlay.

Claire Finlay is a potter who creates sculptural and functional ceramics, inspired by the natural world. Working from her studio on the west coast of Ireland she is inspired by shapes which merge from one into another with such fluidity - like fish into leaves to the ribs in the hull of a boat. Everything is interconnected. It’s what the Shamans call shape-shifting. Each piece is handmade, which results in items that are truly unique, full of individuality and character. Her work has been exhibited in Ireland, Scotland and England. www.clairefinlayceramics.com