Steve Hall

Steve Hall is continuing his personal voyage which he describes as a

stroll along the shores of the cosmos. His wish is to pursue the truth wherever it leads and to find the truth he needs imagination and scepticism. Through the medium of clay, he is exploring many different themes, ancient and modern, from the very creation of Scotland to our seemingly relaxed approach to war and nuclear Armageddon.

Having been thrown out of Art College after three years, Steve spent a decade working in the Edinburgh music and nightclub scene before moving to the Highlands at the turn of the century, later setting up his own studio in 2009.

He works mainly in stoneware but dabbles in painting, comic book

illustration and CD cover design. A lot of work centres around many of our modern mainstream concerns - climate change, plastic in the

oceans and war in Europe - but it often has a darkly satirical edge to it.

His work has been called “the stuff of nightmares and a Breugel/Mad Max mash up” His inspiration comes from influences such as Hieronymus Bosch, Mark. E. Smith, Jan, H.G. Wells, H.R. Giger, Stephen Campbell, William Burroughs, Otto Dix and the kids comic 2000AD as well as an unhealthy fascination with symbols, motifs, hidden meanings and secret history.

His Plastic Ocean work was influenced by the flotsam and jetsam on

his local beaches, including plastic toothbrushes and cigarette lighters.

On the creative process Steve says: “Many people ask me where I get my ideas from and I tell them that they just come to me out of the clay.

I’ll open up a new bag, cut it into chunks, roll them into slabs and

usually by then I’ll know what I’m going to build, although several times I’ve gone into my workshop and decided my latest

piece needs chopped in half and rebuilt!”