Edinburgh-based ceramic artist Frances Priest will present a major exhibition at Blackwell – the Arts & Crafts house in the Lake District. Opening on 7 November 2025, Motif | Line | Colour, will showcase ceramics created throughout 25 years of her practice, featuring rarely seen pieces from her personal collection and brand-new work inspired by the house.
Frances Priest’s vibrant ceramic vessels explore and reinterpret the languages of ornament drawn from a wide range of cultures, locations, and historical periods. Fascinated by motifs and patterns, she employs line and colour to evoke a sense of place, uncover personal and cultural histories, or simply to celebrate the joyful essence of being human. Her work is also deeply inspired by The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, a 19th-century encyclopaedia of global design that served as a key reference for many figures of the Arts & Crafts Movement.
Motif | Line | Colour will provide the opportunity to view works from across Priest’s career and follow the development of her practice from 2000 to 2025. Tracing the lines of her early monochrome works through to her complex and elaborately patterned vessels. It features work from the artists most recent collection, ‘Unfixing’ and newly created work inspired by Blackwell’s architect, Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott.
Frances Priest states, “To me Blackwell represents a perfect example of the integration of ornament, craftsmanship and materiality into the fabric of a building. I have long admired the dazzling William De Morgan tiled fireplaces Baillie Scott commissioned for Blackwell and the presentation of the Lakeland Arts contemporary ceramic collection across the house. It feels a huge honour to be invited to exhibit in this beautiful home and to make a new collection in response to Baillie Scott’s work.”
Since graduating from the ceramic department of Edinburgh College of Art in 1999, Priest has developed an internationally recognised practice, with work represented in private collections across the globe and UK public collections, including The Fitzwilliam Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum, and The National Museum of Scotland.
Blackwell Programme Curator, Naomi Gariff says, “We’re delighted to be exhibiting the work of Frances Priest at Blackwell this autumn. There is a strong synergy between Priest’s ceramics and the decorative interiors of Blackwell. They share a language of ornament that celebrates pattern, line and colour, and this being brought to the fore through a new collection of works inspired by M H Baillie Scott’s designs, created especially for this exhibition.
This is a rare opportunity to see a broad survey of Priest’s work, displayed within the beautiful domestic setting of Blackwell. We’re grateful to all the lenders who have made the exhibition possible, enabling the public to see works by Priest that is some cases have never been displayed in a public gallery before.”
Priest’s commissions include The Tiled Corridor for Edinburgh & Lothians Health Foundation and Patterns of Flora for Atlas Arts. Priest’s work has featured in biennials and awards including, European Ceramic Context, The Wesley Barrell Craft Award, The British Ceramics Biennale, Arts & Business Scotland Award, Homo Faber, and The John Smedley Craft Prize. Priest is also a Homo Faber selected maker and a QEST Johnnie Walker scholar.
With thanks to the Hope Scott Trust for their support in the creation of new work for Motif | Line | Colour.
Exhibition details
Motif | Line | Colour
7 November 2025 – 12 April 2026
Book your tickets online at blackwell.org.uk
