Eleanor Wheeler: Biography

Eleanor Wheeler studied ceramics in Grays School of Art Aberdeen graduating with a first class honours degree. This course was designed to prepare the graduate to be able to be self sufficient in any field of ceramics. She then progressed to complete a masters in ceramics and started to specialise in large scale ceramic sculptural pieces for gardens which was supported by a thesis in bizarre garden design; follies and grottoes; of the 16th /17th century.

Eleanor was employed as research assistant in the dept of fine art sculpture at the University of Northumbria , Newcastle upon Tyne and went on to complete a PhD, studying the role of ceramics in contemporary public art. This research programme involved making 4 large scale commissions for site specific artworks in ceramic and carved brick, in the North of England, and these became the basis of case studies and also established Eleanor as a maker specialising in large scale architectural ceramics.

Eleanor returned to Northern Ireland in 1997 and set up her own business Elfire Ceramics and started making site-specific artwork for gardens and public spaces in Belfast and around Northern Ireland.
She has continued to make public art that stretches the possibilities of ceramic, frequently combining it with steel structures and also as a secondary material in the process of casting bronze and reconstituted stone. She has also worked as artist in residence in Local government, most notably in Belfast City Council, where she coordinated community art projects within urban regeneration and peace building programmes.

In between commissions, Eleanor travels extensively with journeys including cycling through the Himalayas, and more recently undertaking residencies in India and China. These journeys inevitably generate ideas that inspire new work and nurture the artists lifelong fascination with animals, birds and their symbolic cultural significance. This feeds into work for both exhibition and ongoing creative professional development.