Les Manning 的陶艺作品从陶艺的历史中获得灵感，但更多的是直接来自于加拿大落基山脉的宏伟壮观的景象，在风景知识的基础之上，他结合了大量不同的有具体形状的泥塑。然后不断的进行修改舍弃，从而创造了非常具有个人特色的艺术作品。不同物质的结合使得在制作陶艺过程中产生的压力与创造自然景观给艺术家带来灵感的自然力颇为相似。物体随着陶器的传统而破裂，这就说明比起历史对于陶艺发展过程来说，自然对其的影响更大。这种美学的背景使我们的作品具有一种强烈的区域感。利用以前的喷砂烧制技术和银汞合金技术，银镶嵌在里面突出了压力使其破裂，而且使表面的颜色变成了冬天景物的冷色调，所以我们要用最适当的方法精致，小心地处理每一件作品。虽然这些容器，碗，盘子都几乎以历史背景为基础，对于物体的解释赋予了他们一个全新的和更当代化的身份，这些作品从内心感受和直觉选择两个方面来探求与过去有关的，更多的是与现在有关的物体形状的发展。
The ceramic works by Les Manning find inspiration from ceramic history but are more directly about the dynamic landscape of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. By combining a number of different clay bodies in a specific arrangement based on knowledge of the landscape, then throwing and altering these forms, the techniques applied in this manner create very personal artistic result. The combining of these disparate materials causes stress in the ceramic process similar to the natural forces that created the landscape from which these pieces were inspired. The objects break with ceramic tradition in that they are responding more to the influence of nature than to the formal histories of the ceramic process. This aesthetic context gives the work a strong “sense of place”. Using the post firing techniques of sandblasting and the application of silver amalgam, the surfaces are reduced to the cooler colours of a winter landscape with the silver inlays highlighting the stress fractures. These methods allow each piece to be treated as elegantly, subtly or informally as is deemed suitable. Although the vessels, bowls and plates are loosely based on an historical context, the interpretation of these forms gives them a new and more contemporary identity. The artist works from inner feelings and intuitive choices to explore new growth in forms not unrelated to the past, but very much about his present.
