A life time, almost, has been devoted to acquiring the skill and knowledge to take my art, for it is more than a craft, to a level of excellence. I feel that I am able to approach ceramics, now, imbued with a philosophy and aesthetic spirit which is so much endemic to the approach of the Japanese masters of this so ancient and so demanding art.
I am now following a new direction, that of the master Islamic potters, who found such favour with the early rulers of the Ottoman Empire, especially with Suleyman, the Magnificent. That direction is into to the world of smoke reduced lustre. I have been a student of Alan Peascod who, himself, had studied and worked with Alan Caiger-Smith who had done so much to bring smoke reduced lustre into the main stream of modern ceramic art.
- Student: Wollongong High School
- Student: Balmain Teachers’ CollegeBachelor of Arts: University of New England, 1972.
- Teacher and head teacher in various high schools until I retired in 1989.
- Pottery: numerous part-time courses
- Wollongong Technical College,
- advanced certificate in ceramics at W. College of Tafe, 1993 to 1996,
- Summer School at East Sydney College in stoneware, clay and glazing,
- Workshops in Porcelain, ACT,
- salt glazing workshop with S. Lockwood at Mittagong,
- wood firing and shino workshop with B. Samuels in Katoomba,
- smoke reduced lustre workshop at Kiama,
- Extensive training and development in smoke reduced lustre with A. Peascod,
- Numerous workshops conducted by the Australian Potters’ Society, especially with Shigo Shigea,
- Glaze development course at W. College of Tafe, Life drawing classes 1994-1995,
- Artist in Residence, Senior College, ACT, 1993-4,
- Joint smoke reduced lustre exhibition, Wollongong Ceramics Gallery, 1994.
- Joint stoneware exhibition Wollongong Ceramics Gallery,1996.
- Numerous firings with Robert Reid, Teacher of Ceramics, Randwick Tafe,
- Teacher of pottery to adult classes Illawarra, 1994 till 1996.
- Extensive study of Chinese ceramics at the Percival David Gallery University of London, 1976, David Leach respective exhibition V. and A. Museum, 1976.
- Visits to the porcelain potteries, Stoke-on-Trent and to the Regional Gallery there, 1990.
- Planned joint exhibition with Bellingen Arts Council, Feb., 2006.
