Jonathan
Barrett - Danes |
Ceramics has been
a family tradition spanning four generations at least. The earliest records
show a pottery at Hoo in Kent in 1834 where even the street was named
after my forbears.
Each generation has produced their own particular style of work and responded to the changing needs of society. My father was the first to break with tradition by leaving the family pottery and undertaking a formal college training and entering the pottery industry as a designer. I continued along this
path of formal education and completed my degree in ceramics at Bristol
Polytechnic in 1985, mainly concentrating on thrownware and glaze development.
Although my primary
interest was the wheel thrown object, I have since been concentrating
on developing handbuilt animal forms. The pig in particular provides an
endless source of ideas. My animal forms in many ways still embody the
same concern for form and profile that sustained me in the search for
the ideal teapot and I feel that I have been able to transfer many of
the elements that excited me in that development. This has endowed my animals with a strength and humour. BACK |