A farmer's daughter who grew in the North East has reflected on being awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours List.

Jennifer Lee is a ceramic artist whose work features in public collections and galleries worldwide, as well as venues such as the V&A in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The former Methlick Primary School pupil has been based in the UK capital for many years now.

Under normal circumstances, though, she's still a regular visitor back up to Aberdeenshire to see her mum Mary, brother Ernie, who's a farmer, and sister Susan.

Jennifer states she was "thrilled, amazed, surprised and delighted" to be awarded her honour for services to ceramics.

She added: "I've already been very lucky to make a living out of something I love doing.

"To be given this award on top of that - it means a lot to me.

"I'm also very pleased that it helps to put ceramics in the spotlight. Anything that does that is a good thing as far as I'm concerned."

After leaving boarding school - St Margaret's in Aberdeen - Jennifer briefly trained to be a physiotherapist before realising she was on the wrong path.

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While staying with family friends down in Suffolk she had previously met Robin Welch, one of Britain's finest potters.

This had led her, over the course of summer holidays, to work as an assistant at his studio.

Finally putting aside her doubts about whether she was good enough, she ceased her physiotherapy training and applied instead to the Edinburgh College of Art.

After completing the four-year course in 1979, she then gained a scholarship to travel around the west coast and south-west of America, researching prehistoric pottery made by the indigenous people of the region.

She also met some leading modern day ceramic artists.

Jennifer said: "I was young and Scottish. I'd just ring them up and ask if I could come and talk to them. Everyone said yes, everyone was lovely and I ended up getting to chat to some really fascinating people."

From 1980 to 1983 she continued her studies at the Royal College of Art in London, before starting to forge a successful career in ceramics.

Jennifer's pots are all hand-built, their muted colours being created by mixing metallic oxides into the clay before she begins to make them.

Ten years after leaving the Royal College of Art, Jennifer had a solo show in the art gallery in Aberdeen.

She said: "I still very rooted in Aberdeenshire."

Her work has also been presented in one-woman shows that have spanned the globe.

The international venues have ranged everywhere from Stockholm, Brussels, New York, Sydney, Los Angeles Switzerland, Canada, Germany and Seoul.

However it is Japan - a country she first visited in 1994 - which has the most impact on her and her work.

Jennifer's many trips there since have included several periods as the guest artist in residence at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Centre.

She said: "Ceramics have come back to the fore over the last five years - I've heard that after lockdown began it became almost impossible to get a basic kiln.

"But making pots is something that people have done and enjoyed for millennia.

"Clay, water, fire and your two hands - it's like magic."

View Jennifer's work at www.jenniferlee.co.uk

NB: By strange coincidence Jennifer Lee was not the only person with that name and local connections to receive an award in the New Year's Honours List.

This lead to some confusion, which is why we haven't featured her story until now.

To read about the other Jennifer Lee click here

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