Exhibition | Jean-Nicolas Gérard | 2024

wlc jng slate Exhibition | Jean-Nicolas Gérard | 2024 Slipware

We’re delighted to share this new exhibition of pots by Jean-Nicolas Gérard, a slipware potter from Provence in France. With a glaze palette of golden yellows and browns, white, blue, and black, Jean-Nicolas makes beautiful, functional earthenware pots, almost all of which are designed to be used in the garden or the kitchen for the cooking and presenting of food.

Jean-Nicolas Gérard was born in Brazzaville (Congo) in 1954 and his family returned to France in 1961. He started studying ceramics in 1978 and was Jean Biagini’s student at École des Beaux-Arts in Aix-en-Provence. He also trained with Claire Bogino. Gérard has gained international acclaim and exhibitions of his pots have been staged around the globe, including America, Australia, China and Japan.

He is one of those rare potters who brings genuine life and gusto to contemporary slipware, investing the tradition of terre vernissée with a fresh and expressive energy unlike any other. Many think that Gérard’s work has a spontaneity that so many others can only wish for.

‘To use the pots of Jean-Nicolas Gérard is to celebrate the centrality of food in human culture and, in our industrially mediated world, to be reminded of its importance in nourishing the mind and spirit as well as the body.’ Sebastian Blackie.

In Conversation | Clive Bowen

wlc in conversation clive bowen In Conversation | Clive Bowen Slipware

Join Clive Bowen in conversation with Mike Goldmark. Among other things, they talk about Clive’s early start as a painter, his apprenticeship with Michael Cardew, his love of music and improvisation and his success in Japan. We also see shots of his beautiful pots in situ at his Goldmark exhibition celebrating his 80th birthday.

A Beautiful Strangeness

jng beautiful strangeness jpg webp A Beautiful Strangeness Slipware

It happens in an instant. She had picked up the plastic cup from the floor and, unthinking, in one motion, lent back and let it go, watching it hang in mid-air for a second, before seeing it tumble into what had looked like an empty sink. A sharp ring, followed by the mocking laughter of … Read more

Spontaneous Drawing

clive bowen slipware tiles featured image jpg webp Spontaneous Drawing Slipware

Geographically Clive Bowen seems more than appropriately sited as a potter – living and working at Shebbear, in the remoter Devon valleys near Great Torrington.  He is close to where the great earthenware tradition of the North Devon coast once thrived, where he learnt to make pots at Michael Leach’s pottery at Yelland, and to … Read more

Documentary | Clive Bowen | Born, Not Made

Clive Bowen

Now in his early seventies, Clive Bowen is without equal in Britain as a maker of slipware. His pots are collected and used worldwide.

Filmed on location in Devon, this documentary follows Bowen as he prepares for his 2014 ceramics exhibition at Goldmark Gallery.

The film follows Bowen at work in his studio. It shows him throwing, glazing and decorating platters, jugs and store jars, press moulding tiles and opening his kiln.

Bowen discusses his life as a studio potter and the challenges involved.

A Unique Gift

L1006382 jpg webp A Unique Gift Slipware

The sureness of hand and eye gives the work a childlike spontaneity only mastered through years of experience. This is the third solo exhibition of Jean-Nicolas Gérard’s pots at Goldmark. What more can usefully be written? I suspect many of the gallery’s patrons are already converted, enthusiastic to see his latest works. They will not … Read more

In Conversation | Doug Fitch

doug fitch slate jpg webp In Conversation | Doug Fitch Slipware

A Zoom chat during the 2020 Covid pandemic. Slipware potter Doug Fitch reveals the story behind the moulds for his beautiful large platters. When Michael Cardew’s Wenford Pottery closed in 2004, some twenty years after his death, Doug Fitch went to visit the dilapidated premises. Looking round the dust-filled attic he stumbled upon a pile of moulds, ‘abandoned and covered in guano’. Purchased from the new owner and relocated to Fitch’s studio, these moulds have been recommissioned – and with magnificent results. The conversation is interspersed with footage of Doug moulding and decorating these dishes plus a look at a few of his ad hoc tools.

An Interview with Clive Bowen | Slipware Potter

clive bowen interview header jpg webp An Interview with Clive Bowen | Slipware Potter Slipware

We spoke to slipware potter Clive Bowen about his love of clay… Looking around the studio, we’re surrounded by jugs and mugs, plates, dishes, platters, jars – all eminently usable. I’ve always made functional pots, pots for use in the kitchen or the home. This is my great love: how to present that meal, how … Read more

In Conversation | Jean-Nicolas Gérard | Part 3

ic jng 3 jpg webp In Conversation | Jean-Nicolas Gérard | Part 3 Slipware

Jean-Nicolas describes himself as an artisan craftsman who, above all, wants his pottery to be used and enjoyed. His work ranges from small mugs, bowls, plates and dishes to large jars and press moulded platters. All are decorated with slip and many with sgraffito and finger marks. He takes the tradition of European slipware and infuses it with elements from modern painting, medieval earthenware and Japanese pottery. In this series he talks about throwing, glazing and decorating and explores the influences that nature and his surrounding landscape have on his pottery.

In Conversation | Jean-Nicolas Gérard | Part 1

in conversation jean nicolas ger jpg webp In Conversation | Jean-Nicolas Gérard | Part 1 Slipware

French slipware potter Jean-Nicolas Gérard talks about the inspiration he has drawn from local Provençal pottery and the countryside around his Valensole home. He speaks of the joy of making utilitarian ware to be used and enjoyed everyday, the influence of Japanese pottery, the decorative techniques that he employs and his need for spontaneity, focus and freedom when he is working.