About Diane
Who is Diane McCormick?
Diane McCormick was born in County Tyrone in 1966. She studied at the University of Ulster and graduated in 1988 with a BA Hons Degree in Fine Craft Design. In 1998, she completed a post-graduate program where she focused on the crossover techniques of print and ceramics.
Since then, Diane has undertaken numerous commissions throughout Ireland for hospitals, schools, and museums. Her clients include the National Trust, Macmillan Cancer Care, the Health Service Executive (Northern Ireland), HSE (Ireland), Marie Curie, National Museums NI, and Queen’s University.
How does she work?
Diane aims to provide art for healthcare environments in a thoughtful and humorous manner, encouraging the participation of patients, staff, and visitors through the use of poetry, words, images, and photos.
While her main interest lies in ceramics, she has also worked with bronze, metal etching, printing, and glass. Additionally, she has created designs for vinyl flooring, wallpaper, Perspex, and Formica. Her work combines strong patterns with fine detail and craftsmanship to create site-specific artworks that connect with the building’s users through memory, pattern, poetry, movement, and color.
Diane's Exhibitions
2025-2009
2024Potfest Scotland Scone Palace Perth
2023 Form Function Flourish Island Arts Centre Lisburn
2023 Antrim Garden Show Antrim Castle Gardens Antrim
2019 Summer exhibition Blue House Gallery Schull
2018 Summer exhibition Listoke Art Gallery Drogheda
2018 Ongoing exhibition Ross Fine Art Gallery Ramelton, Donegal
2017 Jugs, The Blue Egg Gallery, Wexford
2017 Jugs, McCambridge’s Galway, Galway Design Week
2016 Figuratively Speaking, Etain Hickey Gallery, Clonakilty, West Cork
2015 Teapots, McCambridge’s Galway, Galway Design week
2015 Teapots, The Blue Egg Gallery, Wexford
2014 Artisan, Burnavon Arts Centre, Cookstown
2014 Tea and Twitter, Etain Hickey Gallery, Clonakilty, West Cork
2012 Irish Ceramics, The Barony Centre, West Kilbride, Scotland
2012 Group Exhibition, Millcove Gallery, Beara Peninsula Cork
2011 Ten, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
2010 Group Exhibition, Millbank Gallery, Templepatrick
2009 WillowView Foundry, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
2009 Designers and Makers, FE McWilliams Gallery, Banbridge
2009 Aug Craft Month, CraftNI, Merchant Hotel Belfast
2008-2001
2008 Joint show, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
2008 Animal Kingdom, Jerpoint Glass Gallery, Kilkenny
2008 Beetles, Steam Gallery, Beer, Devon
2006 Flair, Craft Fair, Kings Hall, Belfast
2006 Christmas ceramics, Bay Tree Gallery, Holywood
2005 Ceramics, Bay Tree Gallery, Holywood
2005 Inspired By, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
2003 Barry’s Tea Sets, Kilkenny Shop, Dublin
2003 Eigse, Carlow Arts Festival, Carlow
2002 Organics 1, The Dog House Gallery, Comber
2002 Fusion, Saint Patrick Centre, Downpatrick
2002 Inspired, We Three Kings Gallery, Oxfordshire
2002 Organics 2, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
2001 Contemporary Ceramics, The Lavit Gallery, Cork
2001 Circa Patricius, The Saint Patrick Centre, Downpatrick
2001 Craft2eu, Hamburg, Germany
2001-1994
2001 The European Table, Travelling exhibition (Hamburg, Dublin)
2000 “Lets Get Potty” An Tuireann Arts Centre, Portree, Isle of Skye
2000 “5th Biennale Internationale de Ceramique Contemporaire”,France
2000 Christmas exhibition, Fenton Gallery, Cork
2000 Kilkenny Millennium, Irish design Exhibition, Mansion House, Dublin
2000 RDS Craft Competition, Travelling exhibition, Derry, Cavan, Cork, Limerick
1999 ‘Chairs’ The Bridge Gallery, Dublin; Galway Arts Festival, Foyleside Centre
1998 Teapot Exhibition, Montpellier Gallery, Glostershire
1997 ’Up the Garden Path’ Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen
1997 ‘Time for Tea’ Waterfront Hall, Belfast
1996 ‘Focus on Floors’ Crafts Council Gallery, Dublin
1996 ‘Female Focus’ Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
1996 ‘Academicians and Guests’ Elmwood Gallery, Belfast
1995 ‘The Commissioning of Craft’ Craftworks Gallery, Belfast
1994 Ceramics and Glass, Guiness Gallery, Dublin
1993-1988
1993 Christmas Show, Highland Printmakers, Inverness
1992 ‘Western Winds’ Hitchcocks Gallery, Bath
1992 ‘Northern Lights and Southern Stars’ Lucy Erridge Fashion Gallery, Birdhill
1991 ‘Animal Crackers’ Crafts Council, Dublin
1991 ‘Ceramics and Jewellery’ exhibition with Pamela Wilson, Ards Arts Centre
1991 Solo show, Ulster Museum, Belfast
1991 Candlesticks exhibition, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham
1991 ‘Vessels’ Triskel Arts Centre, Cork
1991 ‘A Treasury of Delights’ Porticus, Wales
1991 ‘Flight’ Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
1990 Summer Show, Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
1990 ‘Open Ceramics’ Harmony Hill Arts Centre, Lisburn
1988 Best of Degree Show, Leicester
1988 ‘Design Ireland’, Crafts Council Gallery, Dublin
Artistic Passion,
Expressed in Every Piece
Diane’s work is meant to be enjoyed on many levels: from far away for the design and colour and close up to expose the delicate details, subtle colours and textures. She can work with ceramics, Perspex, glass and wallpaper.
Artist's Statement
Diane McCormick is a ceramic artist best known for her large-scale public artworks. She also makes smaller-scale ceramic objects, refined variations on a familiar theme: the container, for example, or ceramic panels. The Byzantine elements within her work come from a fascination with the iridescent surfaces of lustre glazes, the visual depth of which is built up in layers and through repetitive, complex firings. Most recently, she has developed a range of high-fired surfaces using a satin finish barium glaze, giving rich blues which she uses with print techniques, painted slip and complex textured surfaces.
“At the centre of my work are connections with the natural world and how the feel of a certain object can be recreated in ceramic. I love cycling and walking, making mental notes about things I’ve encountered on my journeys. These could be patterns in a flock of birds, interesting insects, or the colours and textures of landscapes and clouds. I try to capture a snapshot of my emotion in a passing moment: a fleeting encounter with a wild animal or a changing pattern in the landscape. I live in the countryside and have an endless supply of inspiration in the fields and skies around me. I am curious about the ceramic process and the different stages during making: the way colours, textures and patterns can be formed in clay at various stages in the process. I use plaster to
make textured and off-beat shapes and forms, using these in the process of creating my art. My ceramics are hand-built collages in clay, combining several print techniques such as mono-printing and collography with multicoloured overlays of slips and glazes, resulting in a deeply layered and embellished surface.”
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