Helen Martino makes ceramic sculptures which embody a sense of narrative. Each piece within a series explores an element of the story through a change in scale, movement, composition or colour

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She is fascinated by body language within both the moving and still image and finds inspiration, for example, in the exaggerated and stylised movements expressed by actors in silent movies - but equally interesting to her is the way in which narrative is depicted within Mogul and Persian miniature paintings. Here, a still gesture, combined with often intricate and symbolic composition, captures a moment which tells both a past and a future story

Helens’ sculptures, often intimate in size, relate to this single moment where great, or small, events in people's lives are revealed by gesture and communication

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Trained as a functional potter/designer it has taken Helen years to realise that sculptural works, unlike pots, do not necessarily need openings to reveal the inside. She believes that volume, in a sculptural form, is revealed through the form itself. As a result, the volume is all the more powerful because of its containment. In this work she uses this notion of inside and outside, exploring the tension between form, surface, imagination and communication

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For Helen it is not just the form of the sculpture that matters but also its surface. Here there is the chance to build up layer on layer of texture, pattern and colour that gives each piece its individual character, mood and story

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​Helen says she is lucky to be a potter, still learning, changing and enjoying her work