Training and Influences
  • Pottery:  the journey began at adult education classes and courses spread over several decades.  This was followed by years of intensive practical induction at the Aylesford Pottery with my friends Master Potters Billy Byles and Alan Pariss.  I read a lot of books, watched many videos and took an interest in every aspect of running a pottery.  My ambition was to throw a good pot and let everything else follow.  Residential classes with Svend Bayer, John Huggins, Naidee Changmoh, David Frith and Margaret Frith helped me along that journey.  I also attended various practical master-classes with pottery heroes such as Lisa Hammond, Felicity Lloyd Coombe, Hannah McAndrew, Doug Fitch, Richard Miller and Paul Jackson, through the Kent Potters Association as well as shows and seminars around the country.
  • Brush painting:  I have studied for many years with my friends Master Eric Wu and Master Qu Lei Lei.  There are many similarities between Xuan paper and the surface of a pot. 
  • Other Painting: After 30 years experimenting I've finally settled on ink & watercolours heavily inspired by Julie Collins.  And of course far Eastern Brush painting.
  • Iron smelting, pattern-welding and blacksmithing: I've studied on extended courses with Dave Budd, Peat Oberon, Nick Johnson and Owen Bush. 
  • Green woodwork: with John Waller and the APT . 
  • Etching and printing: with Lawrence Jenkins.
  • Glass Blowing, fusing & engraving: with Tracy Sheppard and others. 
  • Life Drawing:  Regular classes inform my design and lines.  I think aesthetic beauty draws heavily on proportions and shapes from the human form.
  • Philosophy:  A new interest in philosophy inspires me to investigate the spiritual aspects of contemporary making and aesthetics.
  • Creative Arts and crafts:  I research, and experiment widely across many other areas of making including cooking, preserving, foraging and the general philosophy, ethics and methods of making good things and good outcomes.   
ARTIST'S STATEMENT:
To clay I add space and colour.  I throw, mould and trim to create shape, form, texture and function.  I select and mix natural minerals into slips, paints and glazes to enhance clay’s natural beauty and delight the eye.  I aim for harmony between the clay, the surface treatments, the making processes and my skill as a craftsman to produce unique and lovely pieces, which would enhance the human living environment in any space or time.
   I make large and small scale ceramics, mainly in stoneware and porcelain using just a few, simple tools and brush painting techniques informed by a deep love of drawing life and nature.  I like surface texture as art in itself or as the vehicle to support a glaze.  Glazes and other surface additions are mixed from scratch at the pottery and I am continually testing new combinations and layers of minerals and oxides. 
   For many years my work was hidden, given away or dumped until in 2016 it reached a standard I felt was acceptable for display.  I hope you enjoy the show.
Picture
Big pot thown from 80lb of stoneware clay decorated with 3 layers of dipped, poured and painted glazes. Made by Nick Winter 2015.