Shelley Leigh, Artist Extraordinaire, Montrose, AL

By: Zeb Hargett

“I have lived on the bluffs of Montrose for 40 years, and it is my inspiration to make things that reflect the geological wonder of where we live.” - Shelley Leigh

Years ago, sitting on a pier in Point Clear on a Fourth of July, I fashioned a rough depiction of the Statue of Liberty using clay I had retrieved from Ecor Rouge, the “Clay Mountain” as we called it. Ecor Rouge is found on Mobile Bay in Montrose, Alabama. 

I’m not sure why, but I found the process of taking clay found on the beach of Ecor Rouge and working it in my hands to be very therapeutic. Getting the pebbles out while considering what form it would take was repeated over the years and it became a family tradition to while away the hours playing with local clay. Then I met Shelley Leigh.

Shelley is a dear friend to Linda and me, and I soon learned that she was a talented potter—the real kind. Over the years, Shelley has gifted several of her vessels to us, each an exquisite work of art. These are treasured possessions that reflect the beauty, thoughtfulness, and kindness that lie within the creator.

I reached out to Shelley to ask if she might have something appropriate to serve as table decor for our Red, White, and Rose’ wine dinner being held tomorrow evening at Char 32 Restaurant & Bar in Point Clear. With zero time to create something new, she generously offered her barnacle-like candle holders made off wild Ecor Rouge clay, then wood-fired with an ash glaze. I was thrilled.

Raised in New Jersey, Shelley’s parents were both painters, so with an artistic gene, art has always been a part of her life. She and her late husband, Chris, moved to Mobile as young adults, and she recalls taking art classes from Bea Tucker in the 70s. “We had lived in Mobile for 10 years and I was still searching for a sense of community. The classes brought that sense of community I was looking for,” she says.

After moving to Montrose from Mobile, she taught art at Bayside Academy for a while. She stopped teaching to raise her children and continued art as a hobby when she had time. In 2014 or 2015, Bea Tucker’s daughter, Frances Fuller, moved from Tampa to Fairhope, and the two decided to take a pottery class at The Kiln Studio and Gallery in Fairhope. 

“I fell in love with pottery and was always working in the studio. Even before, whenever I walked along the Bay with my kids and grandkids, I would carry a backpack and collect clay from the beach and we would make things. I found myself spending more and more time in the studio experimenting and immersing myself with local wild clay.”

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She shows me the first vessel she created, a small clay vase with pebbles added, using a wood-fired glaze. “Different colored glazes are created by the natural process of burning different kinds of wood in a wood-fired kiln. It is used to flux (to melt) the rawness of the clay because it adds a natural finished glaze to the pottery.” We discussed the different effects of the materials used in glazes. Nuka glazes are a favorite, an ash glaze that can be as simple as wood ash and clay.

“I sometimes burn rice hulls from Louisiana or take ash from my fireplace. Nuka can be sumptuous, complimenting white over the dark of our wild clay. When wood-fired with a significant amount of pine ash, it adds a beautiful subtle green. I do a lot of research before firing my work. It is far from an exact science, and I’m always surprised by the result.”

“There is something infinitely curious and interesting about wood-fired pottery. There is no terminal point where you are certain how a finished piece will look. The more you work at it, the better you are at creating the look you seek.”

Shelley and her kiln friends have traveled near and far to fire their work: Mississippi, Louisiana, Massachusett, and Florida. “Each firing is a clay community effort, sometimes taking weeks to complete. “There is a social aspect to it all,” she tells me. Shelley credits local potter and close friend, Susie Bowman, who used to own The Kiln in Fairhope for putting together a “clay community” that crosses state lines. 

For those latent potters out there, she says it takes a stubborn soul to be a potter. She’s referring to the trial and error process. “What stops people from getting into pottery is the feeling that they have to be good. Once I started making mugs, it took making bad mugs at first, before they became better. I like being a beginner. Have the fearless mindset of a 9-year-old. Permit yourself to do bad art.”

Creating pottery is a long process with many variables, taking up to a month or more from start to finish. “I feel like every person that places a stick in a wood-fired kiln has contributed to the art that comes out at the end. I always want to know more, and that drives me. That is the essence of creating pottery that keeps me interested. Thinking about the process and the different elements involved.”

These days, Shelley continues to create, using wild local clay and porcelain, firing in different kilns, and thinking through how and what she will do next. She says she doesn’t throw on a potter’s wheel as much as she used to, most of her work is hand-built. She draws inspiration from other artists. 

As she studies a clay vessel she picked up from the table where we sat, she is fascinated by the different colors and textures drawn out after the firing. She is satisfied to give her art to friends and it’s always appreciated. “I’ve always had a studio of sorts,” she says. “I never have taken myself too seriously.” 

It’s good to be Shelley. We can learn a lot from her and her natural approach to life and art.