Contemporary Ceramics gallery and shop exhibits the greatest collectable names in British ceramics along with the most up and coming artists of today. Our distinguished makers are all carefully selected members of the Craft Potters Association.
All of our makers are members of the Craft Potters Association and each of them have a story to tell.
Duncan’s fascination with clay began as a child in his parents’ garden. The colour, smell and malleability of the earth led him to discover at school the transformation of clay by heat into a permanent object. As a teenager, Duncan was captivated by seeing his teacher throwing a pot on a kick-wheel, his bedroom posters were images of communist revolutionary heroes and 20th-century studio pottery.
Jenny Southam studied Fine Art in Bristol where she developed her practice in Sculpture, gravitating towards bronze. After several years working as a sculptor and bronze-casting assistant in Gloucestershire she moved to Devon, where she embraced clay as her medium of choice. For thirty years her family, home, garden and studio has formed an integrated whole.
Valerie studied fashion and textiles at Brighton and Bristol art colleges. Valerie’s art is about a combination of brushstroke and knowledge of colour acquired through a lifetime of painting. Ken learned to pot with potters in Bristol and London and has had a long association with potters throughout the country in his work for the craft ceramic materials industry and kiln manufacturing.
Verity is a ceramic artist creating works that explore mystery, trigger memories, generate atmosphere and evoke a sense of place. She makes distinct bodies of work, taking inspiration from the landscape, history, and culture surrounding her in rural Herefordshire. Using clay as a medium for drawing and monoprinting, Verity creates sculptural, slab-built, ceramic forms. It is important to Verity that the form and surface of her work create a harmonious composition and are integral to her subject matter.
Gaynor Ostinelli and Paul Priest, or Ostinelli & Priest, are well known for their animal sculptures which draw on both domestic and wildlife. Exhibited around the world, their work is represented in numerous galleries, public and private collections in the UK and overseas. The animals they sculpt varies as their subjects, and the demand for the work, expands.
Petra trained in the South East and then gained a degree at Cardiff before joining Wobage Workshops, South Herefordshire in 1995. She and her husband, Jeremy Steward, also a potter, live on the edge of the Royal Forest of Dean. They were invited to join the Wobage studios as part-time apprentices to Mick and Sheila Casson, a role they maintained until Mick’s death in 2003.
