I have been making and teaching art and pottery in Tasmania for many years. My first experience with clay began when my mother took pottery classes at Adult Education in the early 1970’s. I made some coil-built pots with her on the kitchen table at home and fired them at school. My interest was further developed through firing gold assays in a rudimentary and toxic process in outback Western Australia that left interesting and unstable glazes on the clay crucibles as they came out of the oil-fired furnace.

My training in ceramics began at Art School in Launceston under Rynne Tanton in the early 80’s. At that time students were very free to explore their own interests within their chosen field, while being required to take regular life drawing classes and minor studies in other disciplines. As my interest in production pottery developed I sought input and took influence from a number of potters in Tasmania at the time such as Joyce Davis, John Piggot, Tim Holmes and others. I moved to Hobart in 1983 and spent a year working at Panogana Pottery with Bill and Hedy Thomas. This was a year of consolidating ideas and honing skills in a production environment.

My first studio was in rented premises in Hobart overlooking the beautiful Derwent River and was initially focused on salt glazing, then wood firing before raw glazed cone 10 stoneware. In 1985 I travelled with Tam, my wife, to London where I spent a lot of days in the Victoria and Albert Museum photographing and contemplating styles of pottery from cultures and ages past. We visited many potters around the UK at the time, and almost all of them were struggling to make a living. Demand for the earthy stoneware of the 60’s and 70’s was decreasing. A few potters were beginning to use more colour and pattern in their work.

At this time drawing was my friend as I had no access to a pottery studio. Colour and pattern, terracotta clay bodies, earthenware, sgraffito, slipware and European tin glazed ceramics were suggesting future directions. On return to Tasmania, we established The Pauls Pottery at Somerset on the North West Coast and introduced a range of colourful decorated slipware to the galleries of the state and demand was strong. The work gradually became more refined and balanced but was nonetheless labour intensive and technically challenging.

In 2001 I began a teaching career and introduced many students to the joys and challenges of clay work. The ten or so years before retirement was spent teaching Art at Burnie High School while also maintaining my pottery practice in a new studio in Burnie. Around this time I made the move from slipped earthenware to a mid-fired white clay body, while maintaining my interest in underglaze decoration. Instead of incorporating sgraffito in my designs, I began to focus more on the negative space and the possibilities offered through wax resist.

Since retirement from teaching, I have continued to make underglaze decorated table and garden-ware, as well as extending my interest to other decorative techniques. I document my current work through Facebook and Instagram and offer collections for sale periodically through my online store.