London Glassblowing

Peter says, “As a potter living, teaching and exhibiting in California during the mid 1960’s I felt myself to be part of the clay movement known as Abstract Expressionist Ceramics – an offshoot of the Abstract Expressionist School of Painting emanating from New York at that time.  The immediacy and spontaneity of Action Painting, emphasising the importance of process, material and gesture chimed exactly with my own work in clay and later in hot glass.

Just as Franz Kline’s strong gestural mark making capture a moment in flux, so glassblowing freezes a moment of decision and discovery recording controlled chance and drama in glass.”

Peter Layton has recently taken inspiration from painters he admires, incorporating a more sculptural and painterly approach to vessel making. In these series, the flattened form becomes a canvas for gesture and bold colour. He is not seeking to replicate the painter’s work, but conjure the essence and painterly qualities in the medium of glass. In 2016, Peter was invited to make new work by the Royal Academy for their survey show on the Abstract Expressionists.