JOHN trained as a sculptor and in the early 1960s he worked in mixed media, modelling figures in plaster combined with painted wooden elements.  Some pieces he and his wife Heather worked on together -  like these Mermaids which they sold to local crafts shops.

Bernard Leach was the catalyst for his move towards ceramics:  a discussion with him at his St Ives Pottery led to John’s apprenticeship with David Leach where he quickly learnt to throw domestic ware in the Leach tradition.  In 1964 he and Heather set up Stoneshill Pottery in Devon where he soon became more adventurous and imaginative in his designs, veering away from the practical.

The late ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s were fruitful times when John’s work was in constant demand by galleries in this country and abroad ~ notably Japan, Belgium, Germany and in Firenza Italy where he won the Gold Award at the International Exhibition of Ceramics in 1975.  In this period too he became fascinated by the use of enamels in his stoneware.  He studied the techniques of the C17th/18^th Japanese potter Ogata Kenzan who developed “the brightest reds and golds in ceramic history” and used this knowledge to great effect in his own work.

All the while he was working with clay, John continued to make playful automata and swinging-boats. His love of the sea and boats dominates his painted wood work. An enthusiastic sailor himself, he enjoyed the challenge of the elements and sailed out from the Devon coast whenever he had the opportunity. In his divas and suitors, grinning cats and fantastical birds, he loved to express the quirks of humanity that make us smile.

In 1996 John underwent major heart surgery which left him too weak to handle the large slabs of clay required to make the sculptural vessels.  Instead he started “playing about” as he said, sitting at the kitchen table with small lumps of clay. Under his responsive fingers these became angels, tigers, kings queens, birds and fish.  As he grew stronger, so did the scale of his sculptures which also became more diverse in imagery.

Another string to John’s bow was his dexterity in modelling beads of all shapes and sizes from clay and fashioning them into dramatic necklaces, some of them with bird or angel head pendants.

And finally, here are three mechanical toys that impressed John so much during his and Heather’s visit to Africa in 1994. He was invited by the South African Association of Potters to run workshops in Johannesburg, Capetown and Durban over a period of a month and became fascinated by the ingenuity of street children who, with entirely recycled materials, made these colourful working toys. They undoubtedly were the source of inspiration for some of his own models and as such have an intrinsic value of their own.