Billie McNaughton is a gifted ceramicist based in the South African coastal city of Port Elizabeth. Her most recognizable works are her captivating feminine ceramic heads. At times playful, at times intriguing, Billie’s work is always delightful and highly accomplished.

Billie studied at the Port Elizabeth Technikon in the early 80s, under artists Hylton Nel and Deon Venter. Before that, while at school in Grahamstown, she studied at the Carinus Art School. “There I found stability and a sense of belonging in art,” she says. Initially, Billie did Graphic Fine Art for a year under well-known South African artist and art educator Alexander Podlashuc. “He had a huge influence on my art, as did Leon de Bliquy.”

Her love affair with art was interrupted by ‘life and children’ but she found her way back to the fold in 2012. Today, she spends her time in her garden studio, which is filled with light, birdsong, dogs, music and occasionally art students.