Holding Green is a ceramics venture founded by artist Marielle Hehir. Holding Green ceramics are rooted in Marielle’s painting practice, and combine her passion for materials with her love of the natural world. Marielle finds inspiration for her work along the inland waterways of Britain, where she lives and travels on her narrowboat home. The canals are a unique environment - edgelands between city and country. From here Marielle takes in the colours and textures of these watery landscapes. She has built a profound connection with the special qualities of these places.

Holding Green wares are individually handcrafted stoneware vessels for plants. Many are made using the ancient method of coil building. This slow process imbues the pots with care, as well as preserving the signs and impressions of their making. Guided by memories of colours, textures and phenomena to be found amongst the canal environment, the pots are hand painted with glazes, layering thin washes of colour which seep into one another and create areas of transparency and opacity. 

Holding Green ceramics are art objects, and they are homes for plants, holding them steady while they grow and thrive.

Marielle recently completed a practice-led PhD at the University of Leeds with full funding from WRoCAH. Prior to this she was awarded an MA from the Slade School of Fine Art and a BA(Hons) from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Marielle has exhibited widely and taken part in several international artist residency programmes. Recent exhibitions include: On Shaky Ground: Land, Paint and Change, 2023, Space at Design Gallery, Leeds; Genius Loci: Painting the Spirit of Place, 2022, APT gallery, London. In 2017 she was shortlisted for The John Ruskin Prize Exhibition and in 2016 she was shortlisted for Contemporary British Painting Prize.