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.
Clive Bowen was born in Cardiff in 1943. Initially studying painting and etching at Cardiff College of Art from 1960 to 1964, Clive went on to train as an apprentice with Michael Leach at the Yelland Pottery in North Devon from 1965 until 1969. He worked alongside Michael Cardew at Wenford Bridge before setting up his own pottery in 1971 when he bought a small agricultural property at Shebbear, near Holsworthy in North Devon and set up a workshop in the former farm outhouses.
From an early age Penny enjoyed playing with clay at home as her mother had a small pottery studio. However, it was not until she lived in Japan in her twenties that she became more seriously interested in making pots.
John Jelfs' work has been widely exhibited in leading galleries including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Alpha House in Sherborne, Beaux Arts, Bath, Rufford Ceramics Centre in Nottingham and is also included in many collections in the UK and abroad.
Since leaving Camberwell College of Art in 1988, Justine has been primarily working with hand-built porcelain. Her work addresses the boundaries between function and decoration. Form is paramount to her, function is a driving motivation, but it is the aesthetics of a piece that are key to her making.
Jonathan graduated from Farnham Art School in 1974 and worked for Joe Finch at Appin Pottery in Scotland. He began making once fired domestic ware in a pale stoneware body, guided and inspired by Bernard Leach’s ‘A Potters Book’. He went on to work in porcelain and to decorate with a brush.
In 1999, Jonathan moved to East Sussex where he built a smaller kiln in a more spacious workshop. He began to experiment seriously with reduction fired lustre which had fascinated him ever since he attended a course given by the late Marjorie Clinton two years previously.
Ruth's pots are built using sheets of soft clay, her dedication to the art and process of making, from construction to firing, has given rise to very particular work. Within this particularity lies a thought -provoking tension. While the pots are structured with great intention and tailored to contain space, their formal concerns are softened by an underlying sensuousness, best experienced by the all -important sense of touch. The vapours that caress each piece in the kiln create an inextricable link between the form and the smooth, rich and complex tones that articulate and enhance the pots' surfaces.
