NELLY BONNAND

Nelly Bonnand — ceramicist. Atelier Les Trois Tilleuls, Bénivay‑Ollon, France.

Ensemble de vases-quilles et vase-boule, composition en forme de bowling

A ceramics of gesture, conceived like a painting

For sixty years, Nelly Bonnand has thrown, painted and sculpted clay in her studio in the Drôme provençale. Trained at the École nationale d'art décoratif in Nice and then at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, she has built a body of work that runs through function — vases, teapots, plates — without ever being confined to it. This conceptual ensemble is one example: six bowling-pin vases with pinched silhouettes, gathered around a ball-shaped vase, form a game of bowling reimagined as a ceramic piece — the function of the vase placed in service of a form conceived, above all, as an object to look at. View the work →

Biography

Nelly Bonnand in her studio, Les Trois Tilleuls. — Crédit photo : Emily Johnston

Born in Paris in 1943, Nelly Bonnand first trained at the École nationale d'art décoratif in Nice, which she attended from 1960 to 1964, alongside teachers who held the Prix de Rome — Jules Lengrand, Maurice Gambier, Pascal René and Claude Viallat. She continued her training from 1964 to 1968 at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the painting studio of Raymond Legueult. Between 1968 and 1971, the young artist lived in Bastia, Corsica, before settling in the southern Drôme, a region her work has remained closely tied to ever since. Two years later, she gradually set painting aside to devote herself entirely to ceramics, founding the Poterie des Trois Tilleuls in 1974, in Bénivay‑Ollon, in the Baronnies provençales.

This shift from canvas to clay is not a break, but the continuation of the same visual research, now applied to the object: colour, composition and the relationship between surface and volume remain at the heart of her practice, from the bowl to the teapot. The studio's techniques rely on Salernes clay, used as a slip, coloured with in-house oxides — cobalt, copper and iron — then reworked with sgraffito written freehand with a point, without a comb, under a clear glaze that reveals the depth of the colours and highlights the variations in the material. The stoneware is single-fired at 1260°C. Firing was done with gas for many decades, until 2018, before switching to electric firing. The motifs, sometimes geometric, sometimes more spontaneous, do not seek to conceal the material: instead, they follow its irregularities and assert the singular character of each piece. This approach can be compared, in principle, to that of Enzo Mari: for both of them, the utilitarian object — bowl, teapot, plate — is never reduced to decorative production, but becomes a field of research in its own right, held to a demand for coherence between form, function and material.

Every piece leaving the studio bears, underneath, a brush-painted calligraphic signature depicting the three linden trees standing on the Bénivay‑Ollon property — a name given to the studio by her teacher, upon seeing these three trees, at its founding in 1974 — both a mark of origin and a signature.

Two registers, one gesture

Two pictorial languages run through the body of work — often on the same piece, never without intention.

Vase cylindrique à renflements, noir et crème

Assiettes graphiques, noir et blanc, geste large

Registre 01

Black & cream, clear glaze

A black or deep blue ground, clear glaze, cream reserves painted with a broad gesture — a play of graphic, almost calligraphic negative space, evoking the abstraction of American painting, in the manner of Robert Motherwell, the American painter. It appears on the sculptural pinched vases, certain plates, and the large tiled table.

Vase 3 coquillages, bleu de cobalt et vert olive

Plat, vert olive et bleu de cobalt sur engobe crème

Registre 02

Cobalt & olive on cream

A cream ground, looser painting in cobalt blue, olive green and ochre-brown, sometimes enhanced with a combed sgraffito that adds texture within the colour. Seen on the plates, teapots and the large flared-neck vases.

Registre 03

Raw stoneware, mineral matter

Covered boxes and handled pieces, in raw or lightly glazed stoneware, with heavily textured surfaces — bark, coral — with no painted decoration. The throwing remains visible and unapologetic, striations and slight asymmetries included: a living, non-industrial material.

Gallery

Pièces uniques, tournées et peintes à l'atelier Les Trois Tilleuls.

Vase Serpent46 × 22 × ⌀ 11 cm

Vase Brown Eye2025 — H 40 × L 17 × ⌀ 17 cm

Vase double gourde, brun profond et bleu pâle sur crème

VaseBrown & pale blue

Bols, série de sept, motif ramifié brun et noir

Bowls, set of sevenBrown & black

Vase FeatherH 45 × L 17 × ⌀ 11 cm

Vase Pagode, algues vert, grès émaillé olive sur crème

Vase Pagoda, seaweed greenH 37 × ⌀ 26 cm

Assiette, larges gestes noir et brun sur fond crème

PlateBlack & brown

PlateBlack & green

Œil de cuivre, grès émaillé vert olive et brun

Vase Copper Eye45 × 24 × ⌀ 9 cm

PlateBlack & white

Sculptural VaseBlue, black & cream

Vase PagodaNavy blue & cream

Assiette, vagues bleu marine entre bandes noires

PlateNavy blue & black

Assiette, éclaboussures bleu-gris sur fond crème

PlateBlue-grey & cream

Boîte sphère, avec couvercle, grès émaillé olive et brun

Sphere BoxWith lid, olive & brown

Assiette, cercles concentriques ocre et noir sur fond crème

PlateOchre & black

Chillida Plates⌀ 26/27 cm

Vase PagodaBrown & olive

Théière à anse circulaire, noir et crème

TeapotCircular handle, black & cream

Vase MotherwellBlack & cream

Vase Chouette, grès émaillé bleu et crème

Vase OwlBlue & cream

Vase et Quille (noire), mise en scène avec tulipes

Vase and PinBlack

Assiette, motif organique vert profond, touches de bleu

PlateDeep green, touches of blue

Celadon Blue VaseH 36 × L 13 × ⌀ 8 cm

Boîte couverte, grès brut à effet de lave volcanique, gris-beige

Covered BoxRaw stoneware, volcanic lava effect

Vase Calabash2026 — 40 × 22 × ⌀ 8 cm

Assiette, vague de bleu cobalt sur fond crème

PlateCobalt blue & cream

Vase ChinaH 36 × L 21 × ⌀ 12 cm

Signature Pieces

Table en carreaux de céramique peinte, composition abstraite noir et blanc

A composition conceived at the scale of a room

Nine painted ceramic tiles, black and deep blue glaze on a cream ground, assembled into an abstract composition with broad gesture — a "false square" where each tile, slightly different in size, follows the logic of a painting rather than a strictly regular geometry. Conceived as a tabletop, the piece goes beyond the merely functional object: it reads as a painting built in ceramic.

Set on a wrought-iron base

The tiled composition becomes a tabletop: set on a black iron structure with arched lines, it reads as a coffee table in its own right — as much a piece of furniture as a work of art.

Table basse en carreaux de céramique peinte sur piètement en fer forgé

The "Anatole" series

A set of thirteen stoneware plates and small bowls, each painted with a graphic black-and-white motif — stripes, triangles, concentric circles — varied piece by piece, never repeating. Together, they form a wall constellation; individually, each remains a self-contained piece. The series, named "Anatole", extends the abstract vocabulary of the tiled table into a more intimate format, conceived for hanging as much as for the table.

The pagoda vases

A double-ribbed silhouette, thrown then reworked by hand to accentuate the flare of the three stacked tiers — a tiered form recalling the architecture of a pagoda. The glaze, cobalt blue marbled over a cream slip, lets the clay show through in places, following the same in-house oxide research as the rest of the studio.

Vase tripode, grès émaillé bleu de cobalt

The tripod vase

A wide conical basin, flared like an inverted funnel, carried on three sculpted feet that punctuate the base and anchor the piece to the ground. The speckled cobalt blue glaze absorbs the light and gives the object a sculptural presence, without ever receding behind the floral compositions it holds.

The teapot with the thrown handle

A hollow handle, thrown in a single gesture into an almost complete ring, in counterpoint to the fine spout and rounded body. The black glaze, heavily textured, almost volcanic, lets the cream slip and its oxides show through in places — a play of raw material that echoes the clean gesture of the handle.

Théière à anse tournée, grès émaillé noir texturé et crème

Collections

Nelly Bonnand's work is held in luxury houses, reception venues and private collections.

Houses & venues

Louis VuittonLisbonne, Berlin, Zurich, Monaco, Nice, Paris
ZimmermannAmsterdam, Paris, Monaco, Venise, Taormina, Florence, Barcelone, Abu Dhabi, Dubaï, Chengdu, Sydney, Melbourne
Hôtel de GallifetAix‑en‑Provence — « HANDMADE, le Sud mis en scène », 2021
Hôtel Cheval BlancSaint‑Barthélemy — Jacques Grange selection

Pieces acquired for retail, reception and representation spaces.

Private collections