Artist Spotlight: One Creative Ape (Paul Owens)

Our next Artist Spotlight for Herts Open Studios is Paul Owens, the ceramicist behind One Creative Ape.

Paul first encountered ceramics at school, but convinced there were no long-term prospects, he pursued a creative career in publishing and advertising. It wasn’t until retirement that he returned to clay, drawn to its endless possibilities as a medium where art, design, form, and function all intersect.

Paul’s practice is driven by ideas. He has kept notebooks for years, filled with fragments of thoughts, sketches, and inspirations, many of which come to him while travelling. His archive includes photographs of architectural details, typography, shop signs, manhole covers, and the small details of everyday life that define a place and spark new directions in his work.

In the studio, Paul listens to music, podcasts, or audiobooks while pushing materials to their limits. He explores single ideas across different clay bodies and glaze combinations, producing a handful of works before moving on, rarely repeating himself. His output ranges from sculptural forms to tiles and homeware, with recent series exploring Brutalism, planetary forms, and, most recently, the Japanese practice of Enso. In this latest work, he applies a single wax-resist brushstroke to a vessel before glazing; an unbroken, decisive mark that captures a moment in time.

Paul describes his practice as coming from multiple perspectives rather than a single style, and he hopes that his pieces reflect the personal taste of those who collect them. For him, the greatest satisfaction comes when a work sparks curiosity, conversation, and connection.

Paul will be opening his home studio at 55 Fishpool Street, St Albans, during Herts Open Studios on the weekends of 12–14 September and 18–20 September.

Further examples of his work can be found at @onecreativeape,  his shop at www.onecreativeape.com, and through his travel-inspired image archive @paul_owens_archive