Gail Dooley
After many years working as both a signwriter and then an antiques restorer in London, Gail went on to complete a ceramics degree course in 2000 at the University of Westminster, Harrow. Prior to this she worked in Guernsey where she still visits whenever possible and this deep engagement with the sea and its birds has gone some way in influencing her sculptures.
Gail’s work is an eclectic mix of large and small scale sculpture and also practical furniture (mainly in the form of ceramic mirrors), influenced by her experience working with antiques.
She has produced major installations including a project for the Marmara Hotels group in Istanbul (2008) as well as two projects strongly reflecting her passion for conservation; 2007/8’s ‘Albatross’, and ‘Tidal Shame’ which depicts a ceramic gannet entangled in a column of authentic sea plastic. This occupied the Liverpool Plinth at Liverpool Parish Church in 2020.
Throughout Gail’s work a constant theme is the sea and the natural world that surrounds it, predominantly its birds. Constructing more on structure and form than upon minute detail, her work invokes the essence, the spirit of the subject matter. Hand-building with stoneware clay and colouring with oxides and glazes, she attempts to paint a picture, to summon an image in solid form. She sometimes mounts her sculpture on stone bases or even on found objects collected from various seaside visits.
Gallery
