Ceramics - DYNAMIC EARTHENWARE with DYLAN BOWEN.

Sunday 16 November 2025 17:00
Friday 21 November 2025 13:55

Coombe Farm Studios (map)

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A pottery course focusing on free and dynamic making and decorating with earthenware clay and slips - suitable for all abilities - led by Dylan Bowen.

After sell out courses since 2022 we’re thrilled that Dylan will be back to make, demonstrate and teach various techniques based on his own work.

The course is really accessible for people of all abilities - from those with very little clay experience to those with a huge amount that want to free themselves up. During the week you will alternate between making and decorating, accompanied by regular demonstrations from Dylan on how he uses clay and slips. These will be simple hand building and decorating techniques which participants can use as a starting point to pursue their own interpretations on basic themes. The emphasis will be on working in the moment, focusing on the development of a loose and free way of using clay and slip. Dylan will concentrate more on the process than the end result. You will be encouragd to make with freedom and momentum whilst leaving space around the action of creating to consider what you have made and how that informs your next steps,. Working in terracotta clay with wires, knives, cutting harps, all manner of mark making tools as well as slip trailers. Brushes, sgraffito, and anything you can lay your hands on.

Renowned for his loosely thrown monochromatic work, Dylan Bowen is a well-established slipware potter. Having trained at the Shebbear Pottery in north Devon and Camberwell School of Art in London, Dylan and his partner Jane Bowen, who is also a potter, now work from their studio in Oxford. For Dylan, the making and decorating process blend together so that the spontaneity and energy invested in the creative process are embodied in the finished piece.

Dylan’s wheel thrown and hand-built works are a balance between traditional painting and ceramics. Inspired by music and abstract expressionism, he pours, trails and brushes slip – a liquid form of clay – onto his pieces. Each bottle is created using a combination of wheel thrown and hand-built elements. Dylan prefers to simplify his approach to applying slip and focus on gestural mark-making.

**EXPERIENCE LEVEL**: This course is designed for anyone with some painting experience who wants to spend some time on working in mixed media and pastels, working with feelings and moods, shape and symbol play. Those who like colour and want to move away from pre-conceptions and ideas.

**OUTLINE SCHEDULE:** Sunday // 5-7pm Residents arrive // 7.00pm non-residents arrive followed by welcome drinks and dinner // Monday-Thursday // 8.30am Breakfast for residents // 9.30am Tuition starts //1.00-2.00pm Lunch // 2.00-5.00pm tuition resumes. Friday // 8.30am Breakfast for residents // 9.30am-1.00pm Final tuition session // 1.00-2.00pm final lunch.
**ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS:** Residential and non-residential spaces available. NB residents are not required to share bedrooms, see accommodation for more info.
**COST**: £821 + VAT for residential which covers all your tuition, accommodation and food from arrival on Sunday through to departure after lunch on Friday. Non-residential fees are £593 + VAT include all tuition, welcome drinks on Sunday and lunch from Mon-Friday. Additional materials cost see below.

**MATERIALS LIST:** All the materials will be provided however if you have your own tools feel free to bring those with you. If you choose to keep any work that you make it will be charged at £5 per kilo to cover the cost of the clay, glazes, slips and firings. NB a large cup would cost approx £1.60

**HOW TO GET HERE:** Our address is TQ6 0JA [What3words: What3words: fulfilled.exploring.branching] and we have plenty of free onsite parking. Trains > nearest station is Totnes then we can arrange lift shares or send taxi details. We are about 20 minutes from the station.
**HOW MANY PEOPLE ON THE COURSE?** Min 6 max 12 to allow the tutor to give everyone enough attention and time on the press.
**FOOD & DRINK:** Food is a key part of an immersive course at Coombe. Meals are taken at a long shared table with the other participants either inside in the cooler months or outside in our courtyard when the weather is warmer. Our onsite chef caters for you including all/any dietary requirements. We grow our own vegetables and keep chickens for fresh eggs daily. For those that enjoy wine, we have a fantastic wine merchant who supply us with a small range available to buy onsite.

SEASON: Autumn at Coombe is all about the crisp days, eating dinner by the log fire, the atmosphere of the changing light and nourishing comfort food cooked for you. Get away from the short days and duller weather by being in the studio, getting away from screens, working on your creative practice and bringing music, company, new skills and freedom of expression into the clay.

“The two biggest influences on my work are my Dad (Clive Bowen) and my wife (Jane Bowen). Both are slipware potters and I feel most of what I am able to do is built on the foundations of what they have already done. I think after a while you accumulate so many influences that they form a kind of stew in which it is harder to extract specific ingredients. I know I am constantly looking at marks, whatever the source, and sometimes that becomes distracting. Rather than enjoying the work, my first thought is, can I use this? Can this be mine? Can I use this emotion? Like a vampire!”

— Dylan Bowen