Tarragon Smith

Tarragon gained a BA Fine Art in 2003 from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, and an MA Fine Art in 2007 from Central Saint Martins.

He admires the historically nomadic nature of ceramic ware. This tendency of pottery to move from one place to another, carrying with it commodities, aesthetics, and ideas, converges with his use of water as a decorative motif. Waves, water, and the sea entered his visual lexicon as a means of expressing his interest in migrating people. Water made a formative impression on his childhood and has since come to remind him of his own emigration from Canada to the UK.

Tarragon is satisfied with the use of a small repertoire of materials. A few clay bodies and half a dozen glaze ingredients which are mixed and matched, offer sufficient possibilities. His oxide mixtures are simple, and his glazes contain no more than four ingredients.  He collects local clay and local ash which are used regularly. Tarragon uses a momentum kick wheel and an electric wheel, his work is thrown off the hump and turned on a chuck. Most work is reduction fired.