Nicole Prues’s ceramics are sculptures in their own right, the result of an accumulation of emotions transposed into clay. From the initial idea to the finished artwork, hers is a long, often unconscious, road. Immediately recognisable, Nicole Prues’s process is characterised by the use of pure - white, black or red ochre - earths. Without artifice or embellishment, the final colours of these earths stem from the artist’s firing secrets. Sometimes she permits herself to include oxides, sands, or blown ash to accentuate a relief or soften a curve. The furrows that are omnipresent in Nicole’s sculptural work give it its unique personality. They also testify to her perfect mastery of the coil technique. Probably the most ancient method applied to shape clay, it allows her the freedom she needs to create these marvels of equilibrium, with no tools other than her hands. Nicole Prues’s talent is also expressed with verve and intensity in her wall panels. Faithful to her technique, she arranges a series of black or white rectangles on which undulate strips of clay honed by her fingers. Light clings to them, softening their edges and generating a velvety landscape conducive to daydreaming. They demonstrate that a material shaped by man since time immemorial can still offer resolutely contemporary forms.
