Tuesday 27 January 2015

THE CURATOR’S VIEW – February 2015



After the buzz surrounding the Graduate Show - our opening event of the year - we always need an exciting group of featured makers in February to sustain interest and to provide several good reasons to keep visiting Bevere as the year advances. This month’s makers, two of whom have never shown at Bevere before (yes, there are still potters that haven’t), do just that. Each month, we try to ensure that diversity and contrast, two of Bevere’s defining characteristics, are sustained; so it is that we have a talented ceramic sculptor, a maker who has mastered the making of refined raku ware and the doyen of print on clay.
Jane Muir
 makes idiosyncratic painted figures which offer a whimsical take on the world. There has been an increasing interest in sculptural ceramics and once again this is because there are a number of original voices which produce work of continuing interest and often raise a smile. Jane is one of them and I am pleased that she will be showing her work in the gallery and outside pieces in the courtyard. Jane studied at Central St Martins and the Royal College of Art and has exhibited widely here in the UK and abroad.
Debbie Barber
originally trained in textiles and only later trained in ceramics which has been her life -long interest. She uses naked raku firing techniques to produce decorative wares which demonstrate the early influence of fabric design. It was the quality of the decoration which first attracted me to her work and I am sure that you will enjoy and appreciate her strong and confident designs. She says that she enjoys the hands on element of raku which demands the close attention of the potter throughout the process from start to finish.
Paul Scott has shown at Bevere before. He is one of the leading exponents of print on clay techniques and has written extensively on the subject.
He is one of those makers that brings together contemporary and traditional aesthetics to produce pieces that are uniquely his own. I have admired his work for a long time. There are seminal qualities here which are the hallmark of the thinking potter – that he is an academic may be a factor. His work is redolent of times past whilst clearly looking forward. I know that many visitors will enjoy this work which is predominantly blue on white. He has just returned from New York where he has been exhibiting.
So that’s February. I hope you agree that we have just the right makers to maintain the momentum that the Graduate Show has generated.

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