Contemporary Ceramic Artists,Roger Lewis

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Brief Description of Work:

Hand built forms  bowls, dishes, vases, jugs, small planters, and containers  constructed from sheets of stoneware clay or porcelain fired to cone 8 in an electric kiln using sprayed glazes. They can fulfil a utilitarian function but are more often used as a focal point in an interior.

Training and Experience:

• 1964/66 – Shrewsbury School of Art – Foundation
• 1966/67 – Buckinghamshire College (1st year)
• 1967/69 – Cardiff College of Art (2nd &3rd year) First Class Honours
• 1970 – Goldsmiths College (University of London)

Selected Previous Exhibitions:

• Kutani International Decorative Ceramic Fair Exhibition, Komatsu, Japan – October 1997
• Rufford Ceramic Centre Christmas Exhibition, Rufford – 23rd November, 1998 – Jan 1999
• The European Competition, Nove, Italy – 12th. September – 31st. December, 1998
• 3rd International Biennial of Ceramic Art, Brussels, Belgium – May/ June 1999
• World Competition of Arts & Crafts Kanazawa 99 – Japan –   9th – 13th September, 1999
• Galerie Groot Welsden – 2 Person exhibition –  - Margraten – Netherlands – May/ June 2000
• Prizewinners of the pottery-markets Keramisto & Frechen – Museum Het Valkhof – Nijmegen – Netherlands – 14 Sept – 22 Oct. 2000
• British Ceramics – Loes & Reinier International Ceramics – Deventer, Netherlands 14th Jan. – 17th Feb. 2001
• Galerie Toon Thijs – Nijmegen, Netherlands.   Oct, Nov, & Dec. 2001
• Made in England – Wohnen & Kunst – Hamberg, Germany. 23th May/22nd June 2002
• Clay 9 – Woodbury Studio Gallery – Woodbury – Exeter.  21st Sept. – 13 Oct. 2002
• A Celebration of Ceramics – RBSA Gallery – Birmingham.  24th march – 3rd May 2003
• Stoneware  Alpha House Gallery  Sherbourne  Dorset. 26 April  24 May 2003

Other Activities:

• Member of the Craft Potters Association.
• 1971/97 – Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Ceramics at Bradford & Ilkley Community College.
• 1997 – Full time Ceramicist.

Stockists/Galleries:

Most of my work is sold at ceramic fairs both in the UK and mainland Europe.

Artists Statement:

I see my work in ceramics as continuous development where one piece or period of work naturally flows into another. It is rather like a journey where you always want to see what is round the next corner. Of course, you sometimes stay in one place for a while and also go back to places when you feel you can see them afresh.

The ideas for my ceramic forms come out of work sessions where I experiment, explore, and invent with clay. Periods of refinement are needed to improve and develop the work but once I have taken a form as far as I can it is time to move on. If later I feel that I can push the idea further, I will go back to it.   

The making I enjoy the most is that when I do not know exactly what I am doing – when there are elements of risk and uncertainty, when time stands still.  I like to have a problem to deal with. Once I have invented, developed, and refined the work, I begin to lose interest in it.  

I am aware that repetitive making can result in work of very high standard with a fluidity that can take work to another level. The periods of refinement in my development allow for this to a certain extent but I think that work methodology applies to speedy techniques, such as some decoration and throwing, rather more than mine.

My working method has taken me though several periods of work. In the mid 1980s I was working with raku forms that incorporated double skins with various shaped windows cut out of one skin. At times I had to put pin holes in the outer skin to allow air to escape during firing. This led me to discover the potential of using inflated cushions of air captured within thin sheets of clay. I began working in earthenware on a series of forms that utilized this discovery.  The first pieces in this series incorporated cushions of air filled clay used in a geometric manner. However, I soon realized that I could cut out shapes from thin sheet wood which, when pressed into the cushion of clay, produced a pictorial element. Forms, decorated using air-brushed underglaze, were produced that made use of these pictorial elements. These forms had rims that were also air-filled. I became interested in these simple rims shapes. When several were fastened together boat type forms resulted. These were much more minimal in character. By using curved wooden templates, similar to those that I had used for body profiles in figurative work, I was able to alter these rim-type shapes to produce variations in the series.This work, which is predominantly in stoneware and porcelain, is more subtle, but at the same time more three dimensional. Curved profiles and what happens when they are joined together has since become my main area of interest. My most recent work, which is presently produced in conventional single skin slab construction, explores this simple concept.

I am often asked to given lectures and demonstrations about my techniques.  So far these have included:-

• Art in Clay (Hatfield)1996 & 2001
• CPA Autumn Fair 1999
• Southern Pottery and Ceramics Farnham1999 & 2000
• PACs Potters (Peterfield Arts)1999
• Dacorum & Chiltern Potters (with Toff Milway & Gilda Westerman)2000
• London Potters2000
• La Meridiana, Tuscany.  (with Walter Keeler & Mick Casson)2001
• The Barnet Collection.2001
• Kent Potters2002
• North Wales Potters2002
• Scottish Potters2003
• East Anglian Potters2003
• My work is in many private collections including:
• The Hardingham Collection, Jamaica
• Nicolas Treadwell, London
• Adolf Egner, Germany      

Training and Experience:

Education:

• Shrewsbury School of Art (Foundation) 1964-6
• Cardiff College of Art  (Ceramics) – First Class Honors – 1969
• Goldsmiths College (ATC – University of London) – 1970

Work Experience:

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Ceramics at Bradford & Ilkley Community College – 1971-97

Full-time Ceramicist – from 1997

Professional Membership:

• Craft Potters Association – from 1996

Other Activities/Memberships:

Craft Potters Association  Professional Member

Further Reading or Information:

• Ceramic Review No.179 (Sept/Oct 1999) pages 20 -23
• Klei  No. 36 (May 2002) pages 4- 6 (article in Dutch)
• Stoneware by Richard Dewar pages 83  85 (A & C Black – 2002)
• Pottery the essential manual by Doug Wensley pages 154  155 & 218 -219 (The Crowood Press – 2002) 
• Ceramic Review Issue 221 (Sept/Oct 2006) pages 52 – 55