Richard Phethean
Date of Birth: 11.08.53
Brief Description of Work:
Slip-decorated earthenware pottery
Training and Experience:
1968 Visited Scott Marshall's pottery, St Just, Cornwall - resolved to become a potter
1976 Ceramics Degree Show - Camberwell School of Art and Crafts
1977 Art Teacher's Diploma, Goldsmith's College
1975-79 Occasional studio assistant to Janice Tchalenko
1977-78 Assistant and production thrower at Colin Pearson's Studio - Aylesford, Kent
Selected Exhibitions:
1995 Workshop Gallery, New Ashgate Gallery, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, CCA Galleries,
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
1996 Art Connoisseur Gallery, Sanderson, George and Peach Gallery, Bettles Gallery
Commission - Baptism bowl and jug for new St Barnabus church, Dulwich
1997 Alpha House Gallery, Tolquhon Gallery, Clode Gallery, Beatrice Royal Gallery
Demonstrator - Pottery in the Making Exhibition, Museum of Mankind
Other Activities:
Teaching - Visiting Tutor:Harrow College
Richmond Adult and Community College
From the studio: Phethean School weekend workshops and one-to-one tuition all year round
Artists Statement:
Trained at Camberwell in the early seventies, making domestic stoneware under a self-imposed 'Harrow' regime and tutored by Colin Pearson and Janice Tchalenko. Spells followed in the studios of both, including one year as a production thrower in Colin's Kent workshop.
In my first studio space, established in 1980, an interest in early English slipware began an ongoing exploration of the medium. Using traditional slip-trailing and sgraffito techniques, I spent two years developing ranges of honey and clear glazed tableware. However, preoccupied with achieving greater depth and texture of surface, a more personal style began to evolve. I brushed rather than dipped the base colour onto the terracotta, building up layers of thin slip washes. Using paper resist and sponge-printed motifs the decoration became geometric and analytical, the forms concave and stylised.
Two years spent working as a volunteer on a crafts project in the Papua New Guinea highlands 1985-87 had an overwhelming impact, both emotionally and politically. This led to a radical reappraisal of my work as a craftsman, and marked a return to classical vessel forms, a looser decorative style and a more sombre palette.
Recent work reflects a fresh sense of optimism and signals a further move back to the essential spontaneity and warmth of functional pottery.