Browse Artists

Linda Kinsman-Blake has been creating distinctive, hand-thrown pottery and Paintings in the Scottish Borders since 1979, after graduating with a BA in Ceramics from Stoke-on-Trent. She works from a family-run studio in the village of Smailholm, where she has worked alongside her husband, Rankin, for over four decades.

All materials are processed in-house, with clays, glazes, and colours mixed using Rankin’s own recipes. Each pot is ‘once fired’ to 1120°C, producing work that is not only visually striking but also hardwearing and functional.

A white tin glaze is applied directly to the dry, unfired surface. The decoration is done in single, deliberate brushstrokes – no going back, no rubbing out.

This highly decorative brushwork is now second nature for Linda. Though a different medium, Linda’s oil painting shares the same magic of transforming colours, albeit before your eyes rather than through the fire of the kiln.