Nathalie Doyen

Exhibition Earth Inspires - November-December 2023

Nathalie Doyen - Chantal Tramasure - Anima Roos

Nathalie says: “I borrow a little part of clay from the earth to bring wonder. Very often, people who look at my ceramic sculptures say that they themselves become changed, moved, as though overwhelmed by what these pieces give off: the sensation of a time when one is cocooned, a dense and harmonious time, which our consumerist, competitive, hyperactive society, blinded by greed, tries to take away from us. With colored stoneware, I create ceramic-sculptures minutely textured with a needle.” (published by Ting-Ju Shao, New Ceramics 2022)

“ I like to model clay calmly and slowly. It is in this way, at this rhythm, that my concentration is at its best. My recent pieces are carried out with much precision and patience; with a lump of clay in my hands, I form a round shape, a sphere which I spread or flatten and in which I carve one, two or three gentle curves, shaped into shallow areas or into plump cheeks. Next, in the way that stones in nature are covered with lichens or mosses,
I cover my still-raw model with a multitude of ‘mini balls’ made from clay rolled between my fingers. Once they are in position, these small stoneware lozenges stained with metallic oxides are textured one by one with fine holes pricked with a needle. Occasionally, I enhance the surface with a diluted pigment or oxide. From a technical point of view, this is simple. But the trick is to maintain sensitivity while making repetitive movements.” (New Ceramics , p.22-25, 2015)