Tuesday 23 June 2009

The remarkable Mr Smith

Here are some pictures of Peter Smith taken during his demo.



Peter came to give a lecture and demo when Nic and I were students at Derby College, back in the early eighties and completely turned our heads.



His influence has stuck with us both ever since, so it was wonderful to see and hear him again.




He uses a lot of grit in his clay - his clay has similar properties to the brick clay blend that I use.



He uses pipettes with rubber tubes attached to suck up slip, then expels the wet slip in a free-flowing, but considered manner, across the surface of the pot.



I admire the fact that he has no intention of making his work 'pretty'. As he maintained when applying his asymmetrical decoration, 'it's not my responsibility to make people feel comfortable'. Love it

3 comments:

Russel Fouts said...

WOW! I saw his work when I first came to England in the early eighties and loved it immediately. NO excuses, it's just THERE! I'm really glad to see he's still making. I hadn't heard anything of him since.

Jamie Andrews said...

I have bought many pots over the years but none have ever given me as much pleasure as Peter Smiths. A true maverick in the art of ceramics.

doug Fitch said...

The man's a genius, no doubt about it