THE CURATOR'S VIEW November/December 2017

 

THE CURATOR'S VIEW

November/December 2017

We have brought together a group of makers to end the Bevere year on a high note. David and Margaret Frith have been making their pots together for over fifty years. Notwithstanding that long time, they continue to enthral with their decorative innovation and their concern never to stand still. There is a freshness of approach and an ability to surprise which remains with them both still and long may they continue. I am also delighted that they will be featured in our Maker's Lunch to be held on 3^rd November.

Claire Seneviratne produces raku vessels which have a wide appeal. Her first show here was a great success and her pieces were admired and purchased by many of our visitors. Her smoke-fired pots are first fired in an electric kiln, sometimes she partly glazes them and may add a metallic lustre. Then one at a time they are surrounded with oak sawdust which slowly burns around them in an incinerator. The sawdust creates beautiful markings and subtle shades and colours. 

Tim Andrews is a master raku potter with a reputation for quality and innovative design whose work has been exhibited all over the world. We have always enjoyed having his fine work in the gallery as in many ways he is the definitive raku potter. So many of his pieces have that centrepiece quality which would enhance a table or a windowsill anywhere. 

Another new maker to Bevere is Hilke MacIntyre.  Hilke was born in Germany. She studied architecture at the College for Art and Design in Kiel and worked for various architects until she moved to Scotland in 1995. Since then she has concentrated on printing, painting and ceramics, combining a simplified figurative style with bold shapes, strong colours and abstract patterns. Her work is widely exhibited in galleries throughout Britain and has been selected many times for the annual show at the Royal Scottish Academy. It is her ceramics we will be showing this month and I am sure that her original graphic and sculpted pieces will produce many a smile.

Stuart Dickens

24.10.2017

Maker's Lunch - Barry Stedman

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MAKERS LUNCH

7 OCTOBER 2017

BARRY STEDMAN

One might be forgiven for thinking that regular meetings with ceramicists would eventually lead to predictable responses and recurring themes. Not so. An enjoyable two hours with Barry Stedman demonstrated once again the different ways in which makers become engaged with ceramics and that the what of their work is  an infinitely variable  aspect compared with the more prosaic issues about how work is produced.

Barry was in his thirties when he began to engage with ceramics after ten years in retail. He had always been into drawing and painting but for him the combination of clay and painting was an irresistible combination. He was a successful student at Harrow – Kyra Cane, our guest last month was one of his tutors. He has been making ever since and his genuinely abstract decoration has become a recognisable voice in ceramics. He also works two days a week with Edmund de Waal supporting the glazing and firing of Edmund's output. Barry's work couldn't be more different and he has tried  - successfully I believe – to maintain his own voice despite working with Edmund since leaving Harrow.

Barry sees his work changing over time. Colour range is more restricted and we are seeing in his latest pieces what looks like a combination of charcoal and marking that is redolent of abstracted landscape.

He was very open about the pressures of professional life as a ceramicist and the need to balance workload with creative energy and avoid over production with perhaps inevitable consequences. What was evident however, was that he had no regrets about his courageous decision to change career for a much more volatile environment. The lunch with Barry was a very good example of how intimate, open conversation can be revealing, insightful and importantly a really enjoyable experience.

Next month we are having David and Margaret Frith joining us for what should be yet another stimulating experience.

OCTOBER FOCUS 2017

Featured potters -
Sara Moorhouse
Masazumi Yamazaki
Barry Stedman - Maker's Lunch October 7th
Supported by over 40 Studio Potters, Original Paintings, Fine Art Hand Crafted Prints, Jewellery & more.

Fri, 6th Oct 2017 - Wed, 1st Nov 2017

 

Sara Moorhouse has exhibited at Bevere before and wherever her work appears the 'wow' factor is always evident. There are some makers who have that immediate impact and the use of colour and banded decoration leave no one indifferent to her technically brilliant and stunningly presented work.

Masazumi Yamazaki has lived and worked in Wales for quite a time now, but there is no sense in which his strong oriental influences have been dissipated by his Celtic environment. His figurative ceramics are always amusing and even shocking. Prepare for both!







Barry Stedman may have been a studio assistant to Edmund de Waal but his painterly abstract vessels bear little resemblance to Edmund's aesthetic. Barry has always been a popular maker – his vessels are three dimensional paintings that benefit from time and contemplation. Delighted to have him back at Bevere.