Still Life with Three Chinese Vases II

Felicity Aylieff’s large-scale ceramics demonstrate a fusion of traditional techniques and contemporary ornamentation. As a graduate of and teacher at the Royal College of Art she has produced artworks on an ambitious scale for the last 30 years, but it was not until her 2007 residency at Mr Wu’s Big Ware Factory in Jingezhen, China that her practice took this new, more experimental approach. Still Life with Three Chinese Vases II is an assured example of Aylieff’s continuing relationship with Jingezhen. At 1.5 metres tall this vase is part of a series that would be impossible to create in the UK due to their size and rich embellishment. The beautiful and complex decoration was produced using the ‘fencai’ process, an ancient 17th-century method previously unknown to the artist that consists of delicate enamel outlines filled with coloured layers of pigment and oil.