October 2026 | Larkbarrow Studio
6th - 31st October
There is something wonderfully instinctive about the work of Somerset artist and maker Lynn Andrews of Larkbarrow Studio. Moving between painting and ceramics, Lynn’s practice explores what happens when the same marks, shapes and ideas are allowed to travel from a flat canvas onto the curves and contours of clay.
Her latest exhibition at The Rising Gallery, within The Black Thistle in Shepton Mallet, brings these two sides of her practice together, revealing the conversation that runs between them.
Objects Made to Be Lived With
That visual language continues into Lynn’s ceramics.
Hand-built surfaces provide another kind of canvas, with bold black marks, flashes of colour, scratched lines and painterly gestures following the shape of each piece. The irregularities of handmade clay become part of the work rather than something to disguise.
Importantly, many of these pieces remain functional.
Lynn deliberately creates objects that can leave the gallery shelf and become part of everyday life. Pots, vessels and other ceramic forms are made to be handled, filled, moved around and lived alongside.
It blurs the boundary between artwork and household object, asking why the things we use every day shouldn't also bring a little creativity into our homes.
Making, Reusing and Experimenting
Sustainability also sits at the heart of Lynn's practice.
Working from Larkbarrow Studio, she approaches the studio as a place for experimentation, but also for rethinking what materials can become. Locally sourced clays sit alongside found objects and reclaimed materials, while pre-used products are given new purpose wherever possible.
It is an approach rooted not only in reducing waste, but in seeing creative possibility in what already exists.
That spirit of experimentation can be felt throughout the exhibition. Nothing feels overly polished or constrained. Instead, the marks of the hand and the process of making remain visible, whether scratched into clay or swept across canvas.
From Canvas to Clay
For Lynn, painting and ceramics are not separate disciplines. A line drawn across a canvas might later wrap itself around a pot; a shape discovered through clay might find its way back into a painting.
Her process often begins with spontaneous, abstract drawing. Still lifes, plants and botanical forms appear again and again, gradually simplified into expressive lines, silhouettes and blocks of colour.
Across the work, there is a deliberate looseness. Brush marks remain visible, edges are imperfect and forms are allowed to develop intuitively rather than being carefully controlled.
This approach is particularly striking in Lynn’s use of negative space. Rather than simply painting the object itself, she works around and between forms, allowing leaves, stems, vessels and abstract shapes to emerge from the spaces surrounding them.
Inspired by the Botanical World
Plants and natural forms provide a recurring thread throughout Lynn's work, making this exhibition feel particularly at home amongst the greenery of The Black Thistle.
Leaves stretch across canvases, stems emerge from boldly patterned vessels and botanical shapes are reduced to simple lines and blocks of earthy colour. Rather than attempting to faithfully reproduce nature, Lynn uses it as a starting point for experimentation.
The results feel familiar without being literal, balancing still life and abstraction in a way that leaves room for imagination.
Discover Lynn Andrews at The Rising Gallery
Lynn's exhibition brings together painting and ceramics in a collection full of expressive marks, botanical forms and beautifully imperfect surfaces.
Seen together, the works reveal how naturally ideas can move between canvas and clay, and how art can exist just as comfortably on a gallery wall as it can on a kitchen table.
The exhibition is on display at The Rising Gallery, inside The Black Thistle, 21 High Street, Shepton Mallet.
Pop in during opening hours to explore the collection in person.