Round Form

An accomplished sculptor and studio potter, James Tower said that his intention was to make ‘forms to convey a sense of wholeness, releasing inner tensions, serene and harmonious, a world where abounding energy is held in calm restraint. The objects which I strive to make are attempts at hymns to the beauty of the natural world.’ Round Form is a late ceramic vessel that encapsulates his harmonious aesthetic – a calmly symmetrical piece decorated with an organic design of spiralling leaves and branches. Tower introduced mould-made circular forms to his work in the 1980s following a series of visits to Turkey researching Moorish tin-glazed earthenware. While Tower decorated most of his works by scratching a white pattern into a layer of black glaze, for Round Form he painted in black on a white base before firing, allowing the darker colour to run in the kiln.