Elizabeth Raeburn was born in 1943 to a family closely linked to Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. It was to Rie she turned to for technical advice. Her painterly and tender use of coloured slips acknowledges the influence of Bernard Leach, a constant visitor to Rie's studio.

Thus Raeburn grew to maturity with an innate experience of the European tradition and the particular amalgam of the English and Oriental that Leach evolved. As a result Raeburn is a peculiarly English artist, yet a careful examination of her work shows that her heritage is catholic.

The potter lives in a rural setting; her converted chapel home and firing bin are bottom left of this extensive landscape. Contrasting with these modest structures, on the right, Raeburn addresses the current puzzling and ominous arctic dissolution, the threat that so alarms us all. Here the painter in this ceramic artist comes to the fore and she demonstrates the ferocious energy through glowing tones.

The panel measures 61.5 x 170 cm and consists of fifty-seven individual pieces. The pictorial element has twenty-eight sections. Raeburn spent about five months evolving the design and making the components.  The whole is reminiscent of medieval stained glass. Like the windows in York Minster, within this ornament is an urge to address what may well be impending doom. Clearly, the work proves its own validity.

Angus Stewart

The pieces are individually raku fired, taken out of the kiln with long tongs at 980degrees centigrade, when the glaze is in melt and the clay almost translucent. They are immediately placed in a bin of sawdust which catches fire, blackening the unglazed clay and accentuating the colours and crackle. This is an exciting and unpredictable technique, which is part of its appeal. For me, it is the fire that gives life to the work.

Elizabeth Raeburn