Canadian potters – Gillian McMillan — Rara Avis https://www.gillianmcmillan.com Wed, 16 Nov 2022 05:32:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Potters in Circle Craft Christmas Market https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2022/11/15/potters-in-circle-craft-christmas-market/ https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2022/11/15/potters-in-circle-craft-christmas-market/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2022 05:29:28 +0000 https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/?p=13985

What a treat to take Skytrain from Port Moody in to Vancouver’s huge waterfront Conference Centre on Saturday to visit this year’s Circle Craft Christmas Show. With a wee bus ride to the station I was there in under an hour. I shared some photos of downtown Vancouver in chilly sunshine, but I’ve been asked to show pics of potters working in the show too. There were many! 

I’ve reduced the size of the photos, and will try to name each artist and add a website address, so let’s see if I can upload 17 photos asap. I apologize for missing one or two potters. https://signatures.ca/circle-craft/

Laura Van der Linde
Laura's pots

Vancouver potter Laura Van der Linde was busy with customers when I first arrived but I was able to catch her in a quiet moment later on. I do enjoy her colourful, eccentric pieces. https://www.lauravanderlinde.com

Three potters were scheduled to demonstrate wheel-throwing and I caught Cathi Jefferson and Gordon Hutchens as they worked. I missed the third person, who Cathi told me threw marvellous tall vases in porcelain. There was no published brochure for this year’s show so I wasn’t able to find her name. Cathi was here from the Cowichan Valley and Gordon from Denman Island so they will have been staying in Vancouver for the show’s five days. http://www.cathijefferson.com/Home.html http://www.gordonhutchens.com

Cathi's pots
Cathi throwing
Gordon Hutchens throwing
Gordon and his pots

Cheerful Fort Langley resident Elaine Brewer-White was being assisted by her daughter on this day. https://elainebrewerwhiteceramics.ca

Vancouver resident Matthew Freed was working alone in his booth but was happy to chat briefly. https://www.facebook.com/matthewfreedpottery/

Elaine Brewer-White
Matthew Freed

Susie Kathol is a wildlife biologist and botanist who lives in Revelstoke. Her work features fine sgraffito drawings of the flora and fauna she studies. https://susiekatholceramics.ca/pages/about-me

Hell Wench! I gather that means Wild, Free and True to Nature. Martha Casey-Knight lives in Vancouver, having arrived here from Australia just as Covid started. Her work, like Susie’s, features sgraffito work in black, on white clay. https://www.hellwench.com

I did enjoy meeting these two clay artists and hope our paths cross again.

Susie Kathy
Martha Casey-Knight

These pottery displays either didn’t have anyone on hand, were being manned by a friend, the artists were busy with customers or, in the case of Whistler resident Kathleen Tennock, there was no attendant. I recognized some work from previous years, such as that of Korean-born, Vancouver resident Sophia Kim. Lots of wonderful work!   https://www.kathleentennock.com   https://sophiaclayart.myshopify.com

 

Kathleen Tennock
Sophia Clay Art

Leah Wang had her work displayed in the Emerging Artists section, and cheerfully posed for me with her work. I couldn’t find a website for her.  Fraser Valley’s Red Pot Pottery grabbed my attention at a previous CC Christmas Market. I was taken by her meticulous and colourful work then. This year’s pieces were quieter. Her website doesn’t give her name.  https://www.redpotpottery.com/About-Myself

Leah Wang
Red Pot Pottery

I had a great conversation with Red Deer, Alberta clay artist Brian McArthur and had a hard time not taking home a ceramic bird. With Dawn Detarando, he makes gorgeous tiles, mainly typically Canadian Rocky Mountain images, as the team of Voyager Art & Tile. If you like tiles, check these out. http://www.voyagertile.ca

Voyager Art & Tile

The last two booths that had me hesitating were those of Nanaimo-based Bronwyn Arundel of Arundel Studios and Grass Mountain Pottery. Both artists were busy talking to customers, which has to be good.  http://www.arundelstudios.ca

Ren Shieh was born in Taiwan, in the foothills of Grass Mountain, hence the name of his studio. His traditional and painstaking work has been shown at Place des Arts, Coquitlam and at PoMoArts.  https://gmpottery.com/about.html

Arundel Studios
Grass Mountain Pottery

That’s my wander through Circle Craft Christmas Market 2022, during which I made a point of looking for potters. Of course I made some purchases for gifts, but not pottery! Thank you Laura Van der Linde for encouraging me to make the effort to attend this year’s market.

I am sorry I have missed some pottery booths. If any of the potters mentioned here would like to correct what I’ve written or add a note or two, please contact me.. no problem.

Next blog, I’ll post pics of my own soda-fired pots. 

]]> https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2022/11/15/potters-in-circle-craft-christmas-market/feed/ 1 THROW, SLIP, SPIN: studio ceramics from the AGGV collection https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2019/07/12/throw-slip-spin-studio-ceramics-from-the-aggv-collection/ https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2019/07/12/throw-slip-spin-studio-ceramics-from-the-aggv-collection/#respond Fri, 12 Jul 2019 18:43:17 +0000 http://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/?p=9758 When I left for Lund, BC, a week ago I had a large group of photos on my desktop awaiting their insertion in a blog about my visit to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. So, although I’d rather be telling all about the fabulous salt-firing workshop with Jackie Frioud at Tidal Arts Centre, I would like to keep things chronological.

I was impressed to find a show of pots at AGGV. As you’ll see in the text accompanying this show the gallery had hosted a major show, ‘Back to the Land: Ceramics from Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands 1970-1985’ in 2012. This generated the donation of many more pots and the current show features ones that have been acquired since then. Most are from Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands again, with a few from other parts of Canada.

 

Robert Archambeau

As usual I felt the need to take photos of most of the pots so I’ll just post them here so that you can get an idea of the gallery’s collection. It’s fun to see work by well-known potters, made at different stages in their careers. Who’d have recognized Greg Payce’s bowl? Alexandra McCurdy’s work from Nova Scotia is so different in colour and firing range from most of the Western pots.

Mas Funo, Byron Johnstad
Alexandra McCurdy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordon Hutchens
Ed Drahanchuk, Glenn Lewis

 

 

Bertha Martin, Adrian Saxe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Burgess

Enjoy your ramble through this selection of Victoria’s pots, see if you can guess who made what. The pieces are labelled with names from left to right.

 

John Chalke, Bertha Martin, Cheri Sydor

 

Walter Dexter
Frances Morris, Kjeld & Erica Deichmann

 

 

 

 

 

Robin Hopper

 

Wayne Ngan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judy Dyelle
Greg Payce
Judy Dyelle
Terry Ryals, Peter Powning

Now that I’m home again, first from this little trip to Victoria and now, this week, from Lund, I have already bisque-fired some more plates for a planned ‘Raid’ next week and tomorrow we plan to take photos of the 16 new salty pots.

Very soon I will try to find time to assemble an account of loading and firing the salt kiln and add photos of the beautiful scenery around the end of Highway 101.

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