Artists Create Berwick: Paddy Hartley
As part of our You Create Berwick series, we’re talking to, spotlighting, and cheering on the people, communities, artists, cultural organisations, and creatives who create Berwick.
Here, we talk to artist Paddy Hartley about finding his creative home in Berwick.
Paddy Hartley’s artistic practice flows in two distinct channels: the figurative, politically charged ceramic sculptures that channel satire and anger and the landscape-inspired ceramic works that capture the shifting beauty of Berwick’s coast. While these bodies of work may seem worlds apart, for Hartley, they are two essential aspects of a creative process deeply influenced by place and emotion.
Finding Home in Berwick
For the first time in his life, Berwick is a place Hartley chose to live rather than one dictated by professional opportunities.
Born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, he spent decades moving between Cardiff, Leeds, and London, none of which ever felt truly like home. That changed in 2016 when a passing glimpse of Berwick from a train window sparked an irresistible urge to return.
“It was the first time I’ve ever felt the urge to spontaneously get off the train at a place I liked the look of,” Hartley recalls.
“That slow coast over the Royal Border Bridge overlooking the Tweed, the town and the bay—it’s what so many people fall in love with. I finally moved here in 2020, after the first Covid lockdown, and now I can’t imagine ever living anywhere else. I found home.”
However, Hartley had little time to explore his new surroundings in those early years. He was entirely consumed by commissions for the 125th anniversary of Swiss pharmaceutical company F. Hofmann-la Roche and ceramic interventions for the Pharmacy Museum Basel and the Anatomy Museum Riga, projects that had already been years in the making.
These commissions demanded intense focus, technical precision, and an ability to work in isolation, exacerbated by the restrictions of the pandemic.
But a different creative seed was planted as he walked Berwick’s beaches between the lighthouse breakwater and Bucket Rocks. Originally an escape from the pressures of commission work, these walks became the foundation for a new, more reflective body of work inspired by the landscapes and skies he observed daily.
A tale of two practices
Since moving to Berwick, Hartley’s artistic practice has divided into two contrasting yet complementary strands. On the one hand, the thrown ceramic works are inspired by the local landscape, shaped by his photography of the region.
On the other, his satirical figurative ceramics serve as a fierce, politically charged response to world events, particularly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“In terms of motivation, it’s a combination of factors,” he says of his politically driven pieces. “The feeling of utter helplessness and fury at Putin’s actions. The resurgence of fears I had as a child growing up in the 1970s and 1980s of nuclear war. But above all, the touch paper for this body of work was lit when I travelled to Riga, Latvia, just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to visit the Anatomy Museum for which I was creating a ceramic intervention.”
There, Hartley encountered a powerful statement of defiance: a building-sized banner across the street from the Russian Embassy depicting Putin as a semi-skeletal, emaciated face of death.
That moment solidified his resolve to channel his frustration into art. His ceramic voodoo totems, blending caricature, dark humour, and unapologetic aggression, took shape as an artistic means of resistance.
“The sense of catharsis in making this work has been enormous,” he explains. “I don’t aim to make likeable work, nor do I want to make work designed to appeal. The perfect response would be: ‘Oh Lord, it’s horrible… I love it!’”
Hartley’s approach to ceramics is unconventional, more akin to scratch-built model making than traditional ceramic craftsmanship. He incorporates cast components from Russian military model kits, embracing imperfections through a process he terms ‘dirty casting.’ Rather than seeking polished refinement, he finds interest in the flaws, seams, and roughness of his creations.
Something amazing every day
Hartley’s landscape-inspired ceramics under the banner of Studio Shim stand in stark contrast to his satirical work.
Where his figurative sculptures are charged with rage and urgency, his thrown ceramic pieces are contemplative, shaped by his surroundings in Berwick.
“To use an analogy, my creativity feels tidal,” he explains. “It cannot flow in one direction all the time. Or, like flexing a muscle, at some point, you have to relax it or work it in a different direction. Otherwise, you cramp up. Tide-in and flex is the figurative work; tide-out and relax is the landscape work.”
Before moving to Berwick, Hartley only used his camera to document his studio work. Now, the region’s vast skies, shifting tides, and architectural landmarks have transformed his photographic practice and, in turn, his ceramic forms. His photography, often in portrait format, captures slices of sky, sea, and land, an approach that directly informs the shape and composition of his ceramics.
The surfaces of his ceramic pieces are inspired by natural elements, achieved through layered glazing techniques that create textures reminiscent of Berwick’s coastal environment. Some glazes mimic the movement of an incoming tide, while others emulate ice formations on the River Tweed in winter. He recreates cloud formations and atmospheric shifts by combining high-shrinkage glazes with low-shrinkage clays, turning each piece into a dynamic study of nature’s forces.
Hartley hopes that his landscape ceramics will encourage people to pay closer attention to their surroundings and appreciate the beauty in everyday moments.
“There’s something amazing to see every day—whether it’s on the walk to school, the commute to work, or on the way home from the pub,” he says.
However, the message is more urgent in his figurative work: “Speak up where you see wrongdoing and injustice. It can be hard but BE HEARD. It’s something I try to do, and I’m still working at it.”
Finally, that brush with Lady Gaga
Before focusing on ceramics, Hartley explored various creative paths in London, including a stint in fashion artefact (wearable sculpture). For Hartley, it was an unexpected but enlightening creative detour, one of many in his ever-evolving artistic journey.
“One of my first clients was Lady Gaga, for a shoot with Nick Knight during her Manifesto for Little Monsters era,” he recalls. “It was fascinating to see how a photoshoot on that scale works. Gaga was fascinating to observe, On the day of the shoot she worked her way around the room and shook the hand and thanked everyone involved (which was a lot of people), and for the rest of the day, she barely said a word. She understood her role was as to be the vehicle for the vision that huge team was creating on and around her and she played her part like the consummate professional. But that’s only half the story…”
Where to find Paddy Hartley and Studio Shim
Hartley’s editioned photography and ceramics are available at Studio Shim on Instagram as @studioshimart, with physical works at 27 Art House and Tidekettle Paper in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
His figurative ceramics can be found online at Paddy Hartley or on Instagram as @paddyhartleyartist.
