Glass Art Bowl ‘Sunset Bowl’ by Neil Wilkin

Neil Wilkin Glass Artist is a hugely talented glass maker with a long and enduring love affair with all things glass.

He especially loves making bowls inspired by his passion for all things flora. The driving force behind Neil’s work is the natural world, it propels him forward in an intrepid exploration of the biodiverse.

As well as bowls, Neil has long been associated with larger-scale, dramatic floral sculptures as seen at The Flower Garden, Hannah Peschar Sculpture Gardens, Surrey. The National Glass Centre and other sculpture garden exhibitions in the UK and abroad.

Neil Wilkin has a clarity of vision that informs his work both optically and aesthetically. His journeyman adventure in glass is tinted with hard and soft colours that absorb and reflect their surroundings.

His mastery over the aqueous nature of molten glass has enabled him to transmit his love of nature into solid form. Neil has exhibited all over the country as well as abroad and has won awards for his outstanding glass artistry. 

You can find his glass in both national and international collections. These collections include the Crafts Council and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Neil Wilkin – Artist Statement

“…the geology beneath our feet shapes and colours our environment in so many ways. My travels in Madagascar and Australia as well as across the British Isles have yielded a wealth of inspiration, geological as well as flora and fauna”

Crafts Council Statement
Recognised as a consummate craftsman, Neil Wilkin produces exquisite glass. As a maker, Neil has committed his life to a pursuit of perfection in form and colour, harnessing the unique optical and physical qualities of glass. His mastery of glass is expressed through the creation of beautiful work inspired by the natural world. Neil’s work is held in public and private collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Hepworth Wakefield and Crafts Council Collection.

“A bowl, is a bowl, is a bowl?… In his own words: “To me, as a maker, it is the most pleasing of all forms. Apparently simple, deceptively difficult to do well.” And: “The bowl is a perfect canvas. I don’t try to master it; I am seeking a balance between control and freedom…” It takes a master to come to this profound understanding of form material and technique.

By using the heat of the glass and allowing colours, soft and hard, to pull and push the clear glass mass, the glass beholds its natural tension, while letting the glass flow to its perfect natural form, revealing colour and light. Form follows material! Neil’s perfect bowls are like flowers, tulips in stages of opening .”

Contemporary Glass Society ‘Glass Network’ magazine – Peter Bremers