Potters to show here

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32705, 7 September 1971, Page 10

Potters to show here

For the first time for five years, the annual exhibition of the New Zealand Society of Potters is to be held in Christchurch.

The exhibition, which will be open in the C.S.A. gallery from Sunday. September 19, after a private opening on September 18 by the Town Hall architect, Mr Miles Warren, will feature work done in the last year by the society’s members all round the country. Membership of the society is restricted to potters who have a required standard of proficiency, and each member is allowed to submit six works, from which the best will be chosen for the exhibition by a panel of three selectors. Most of the pots will be for sale, although each member is entitled to submit one pot which is not for sale. This year the selectors will be three potters whose names are now known overseas as well as within New Zealand —Len Castle, from Titirangi, Warren Tippett, from Coromandel, and

Harry Davis, of the Crewenna Pottery, Nelson. They will be in Christchurch next week-end to choose the pots for exhibi-

• tion. About 1200 pots are . expected to arrive in the ’ C.S.A. gallery in the next ’ few days, and the number > selected will depend on the , . space available in the • gallery. This year the selectors

will also be guest exhibitors, and their work is expected to arouse widespread interest. ; Warren Tippett began his • studies as a potter at the ' School of Design formerly run in Christchurch by Yvonne Rust, and later had his kiln and studio in St Albans. After travelling around the country on a Queen Elizabeth Arts Council I grant some years ago, he . settled in Coromade! and • built a large kiln there. Last May he was tutor for a ; three-day school for the Can- ■ terbury Potters’ Association. Harry Davis was already a master potter when he settled • in New Zealand with his ; family in 1962. He had • worked in West Africa, and ! with his wife, also a potter, • had established the Crowan Pottery in Cornwall. Len Castle was one of New Zealand’s first full-time potters, and has exhibited widely both in New Zealand and overseas.

In 1966 he travelled and studied in Japan and the United States on a Queen Elizabeth Arts Council fellowship.