The whimsical menagerie inhabiting one of Sedona’s art studios spans the fauna of the world.

A joyful hippopotamus, a stoic pelican, a royally-robed rabbit and a sea otter holding its lunch are just a few of the animals created by Michael and Sumati Colpitts who work together on ceramic sculptures for homes and gardens.

“We want people to feel good when they look at the animals,” Michael explained. “On one hand, it’s important for us to capture the essence of the animal, but we also use artistic license and give them expressive faces, allowing them to be engaged directly.”

One of the elements bringing their characters to life is their use of hand-painted glass eyes.

Originating in Germany, the luminous orbs are painted from the back and then baked.

Now available from producers in the U.S., the eyes are used primarily by taxidermists.

“We like to skirt the line of whimsy, one that makes you smile, but is not silly or too cute,” Sumati said.

Michael has been an artist for more than 30 years, discovering his destiny during his senior year at the University of New Hampshire.

“I was majoring in hotel administration, but I was lucky enough to take a ceramics course before I graduated,” he said. “Two of my instructors had tremendous influences on me. One was Al Potter, my ceramics teacher, and the other was James Vassanelli who taught me art history. I wish I could find them to thank them.”

It was the enthusiasm each had for the art as well as their respective enthusiasm for Colpitts’ discovery of pleasure in the throwing on the potter’s wheel that meant so much to the graduating student.

“I had no idea that I had this ability until then, that I could make interesting shapes that were both functional and beautiful,” he said.

In 1975, after a 10-year stint as a military and commercial pilot, he moved to Spain, the official beginning of his life as a ceramic artist.

Living primarily overseas and traveling extensively through Asia and India, he had the opportunity to study and experiment with different types of clay and various firing techniques, including the use of wood-fired glazes.

Currently, he uses a gas-fired kiln he built himself.

“I want our pieces to have a look of the earth, not of glass. It’s taken a tremendous amount of research to get it right,” Michael said. “I can’t do it with an electric kiln, but with gas, I can control the atmosphere and that’s what gives us the color we want.”

At the same time as he was refining his skills as an artist, he adopted the practice of meditation, incorporating its elements into his figurative art.

For this particular body of work, he expresses himself through a population of Buddhas.

“I try to incorporate the serenity, the inner peacefulness and beauty of the Buddhas, so that when people look at them they feel quiet,” he said.

It was during one of his meditation retreats in India that he first met Sumati at an ashram.

Fifteen years ago, they came upon one another again in the U.S. and began working together.

Although Sumati worked with clay while still in high school and again when she went to the Chicago Art Institute and the Art Institute of Kansas City, she pursued other careers as a massage therapist and gourmet cook until moving to Sedona.

“One day, I was helping Michael and he gave me a wad of clay and said, ‘Here, make a bear.’ It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve finally gotten to a place where I can translate what I see,” Sumati said.

Hand-pinching the clay to shape each animal, some of which are nearly half as big as she is, the artist also employs an array of textured objects to add markings to each creature.

“I have barrels filled with lace, wallpapers, the soles of shoes, anything that will add,” she said, showing off the abstract design on the curved inner ear of a pig.

As if bears and Buddhas weren’t enough, five years ago Michael added oil and mixed media paintings to his repertoire of works and recently began a line of abstract African figures.

Locally, the artists show their work at Visions Gallery.

They also travel to high-end art shows, including those in Sausalito and Santa Monica, Calif., and to several in Texas.

More information about the artists is available at www.artfulceramics.com.

Susan Johnson can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 129, or e-mail sjohnson@larsonnewspapers.com