After a long and successful career as an illustrator, Derek Matthews returned to clay. He had first encountered it at school and studied pottery as part of a foundation course at Farnham School of Art.
Many of his sculptures start with a narrative that is either imagined, half remembered, carefully researched or commissioned. A love of whimsy, folk art, religious and tribal art, and his background as an illustrator, all go into the mix. His output is low and slow. Occasionally, Matthews returns to a theme but, unless specifically designed as a set, every piece he creates is unique.
The atist works with a variety of earthenware and wild clays into which he often adds other materials. He usually constructs from rolled sheets of clay and uses oxides and multiple firings to give a distressed or patinated surface. He fires in an electric kiln to a maximum of 1100 degrees centigrade.