Peter bounced into the gallery one March morning on his way from his studio in Bath to a workshop he maintains in Udaipur India. He has always travelled and is fascinated with the way clay is worked into varied beautiful forms in remote parts of the world using very limited tools and technology. It is this purity of form
following function that Peter strives to achieve in his own practice. He professes to working through the seat of his pants!
Constantly experimenting with just how far he can take a material or a technique before it rebels on him, brings a tension to his work that is often missing from the work of the more complacent artist. He often de-constructs in order to reconstruct and loves to learn from his failures.
In his own words:
“ I have always been interested in the history of ceramics – why and how ‘things’ are made of clay. This interest was extended after I spent several years travelling through Africa working with various tribes and village potters and being intrigued how, with limited technology and basic tools, they were able to get such exquisite, beautiful surfaces. I found the same inherent skills in India, Nepal Japan and New Mexico. I tried to adopt the ideas picked up from my travels in my own work. By building up layers of textured clay combined with burnishing and polishing of surfaces, I try to achieve opposites of rough and smooth.
I have been working on large scale ceramic forms which I have placed in the landscape. My main aim is that the work should not compete with the landscape, but evolve within the environment. With this in mind I have introduced other minerals into the Raku ceramic surface such as iron and copper. With the elements of time and erosion, the individual piece takes on its own developing surface.
I find it joyful to work with many different materials. Each has its own character, its own limits, its own tolerance – some materials fight back, some play the game. Finally I think it’s the material that is in charge and it will only let you make what it wants.
It is my job to push it to its limits and somehow an equilibrium is made between maker and material.”
