HUGH WEST Featured Artist
1st to 29th September 2021
Celebrating 50 Years of Ceramics During his 50 year career, Hugh West has experienced every possible connotation of life as a potter, and has finally reached his paradise. In this show Hugh has selected his favorite twenty
Seven
pieces
created
since
November 2020. “I was destined to be a farmer” says potter Hugh West, “but many things put me off that way of life, including being struck by lightning on our farm in the Brecon Beacons”. This curious act of God was the catalyst for the next half century of Hugh’s life, over which time he has risen from lowly art student to Hugh’s First College Piece Not For Sale
respected Master Craftsman.
It has been a circuitous journey: talent, hard work, and an education from world class potters have all influenced Hugh’s incredibly productive career, and have brought him this September to a celebratory 50th Anniversary exhibition at Whitewater Contemporary in Polzeath, Cornwall.
“After my recovery from the lightning strike”
“Their way of creating pots was the opposite
says Hugh” I took a foundation course at
of the industrial methods I had learned”
Hereford College of Art which included an
says Hugh. “Everything was handmade
industrial ceramics module”. Soon after,
and so free”.
while on holiday in Cornwall, he visited St
fortunate enough to meet potter Lucie
Ives Pottery and saw the great Trevor Corsar
Rie in her studio, and her work made an
throwing on the wheel. Instantly inspired,
early impression on him. “And others have
Hugh enrolled on the ceramics course at
influenced me since” says Hugh, “Richard
Redruth School of Art, where Mary Rich and
Godfrey, for his innovation and use of colour;
Roger Veal were his tutors, and Bernard
Seungho Yang, for his calm and unorthodox
Leach, Janet Leach and Michael Cardew
approach, Alfred Hering, for his tenacity and
were visiting lecturers.
creativity, and David Leach for his friendship and support”.
As a student, Hugh was
Vase Porcelain WE531 | 10.5cm x 9.5cm x 10.5cm £395
At the age of just 21 Hugh set up his first pottery in Newquay, but soon found that his skill would need to be backed up by serious business acumen. “I borrowed £1,000 – that’s the equivalent of £12,500 today! - and bought a wheel, clay and raw materials to set me up” he tells me. “Realisation came fast though - I had limited time to make glazes and get selling, and I remember thinking ‘what have I done?’. I actually stood in my new workshop and cried!” Things improved after Truro shop owner Pru Danby gave Hugh his very first order for £50, but the ceramics market around Newquay was limited and the pottery studio was too small to be viable.
Vase
Open Bowl
Porcelain WE532 | 8.5cm x 11cm x 8.5cm £185
Porcelain WE533 | 18cm x 12cm x 18cm £225
Looking to expand, Hugh found a barn on the Flete estate near Modbury in Devon and set up West Pottery, employing trainee potters including Chris Hawkins, who is now a successful raku potter. Hugh quickly found success creating tableware for Harrods, Heals, and Liberty of London, “and I supplied the original Cider Press Centre in Dartington” adds Hugh. “Miss Jewel, the head buyer,
Hugh’s business success in Devon eventually
insisted that all pots be inspected by her
lost its attraction, and he began to look for
to check quality. I would tremble before an
an opportunity to explore the wider world of
appointment!”. It was there that [potter]
ceramics. “I answered an advert in Ceramic
David Leach befriended Hugh. “I am ever
Review for someone to go and live and
grateful to him and to Pan Henry of the
work in the village of La Borne, in France
Casson Gallery” says Hugh, “for introducing
[an internationally significant centre for
my work to the gallery scene”.
ceramics]” explains Hugh.
Small Open Vase
Vase
Porcelain WE534 | 7.5cm x 7.5cm x 7.5cm £125
Porcelain WE535 | 7.5cm x 9.5cm x 7.5cm £165
Open Bowl Porcelain WE540 | 33cm x 11cm x 33cm £450
Open Bowl Porcelain WE541 | 22cm x 9cm x 22cm £250
“It was part of a project to recreate the
“By then I was fast at throwing and earned
traditional wood-firing ways of former La
well. I sold at fairs, took part in exhibitions and
Borne potters and it was an important
won a gold medal at the Munich International
chapter in my career: learning the old
Craft Fair”. Circumstance eventually brought
ways, collecting antique pots and visiting
him back to Cornwall, where he spent a brief
museums”. In France Hugh built an Anagama
time on the Killiow Estate near Truro before
kiln [a traditional Japanese wood-burning
establishing a pottery at Carnon Downs, “this
kiln].
time building a Yakishime kiln” says Hugh. “I had no time to spare for exhibitions - I was working non-stop to supply galleries”.
Wide Rimmed Globe Vase
Wide Rimmed Globe Vase
Porcelain WE551 | 9.5cm x 11.5cm x 9.5cm £185
Porcelain WE543 | 9.5cm x 14.5cm x 9.5cm £250
In 2000 he returned to La Borne, where he made a significant change in focus from stoneware to porcelain, thanks to advice from his long-time friend David Leach. “David once told me ‘You are a porcelain potter’” says Hugh, “and what did I do? I went off and made stoneware! But by now I had decided to work exclusively in porcelain and to make individual pieces.
Lidded Jar Porcelain WE538 | 9cm x 12cm x 9cm £200
Vase Porcelain WE530 | 8cm x 12cm x 8cm £180
Moon Jar Porcelain WE536 | 33cm x 27cm x 33cm £550
Moon Jar Porcelain WE537 | 30cm x 27cm x 30cm £550
After years of hard work I wanted porcelain’s simplicity and purity - I wanted to really explore its possibilities”. Porcelain, Hugh tells me “has its own limits and boundaries. It requires respect. Everything on a throwing day must be right - my mood, the consistency of the clay, the music on the radio.
Celadon & Rhubarb Vase
Celadon Tea Bowl
Porcelain WE545 | 10cm x 13cm x 10cm £200
Porcelain WE553 | 9cm x 7cm x 9cm £200
I am inspired by the search for perfection, I still want to get it right, I want people to pick up one of my pots and really like it”. Hugh uses three types of porcelain - Southern Ice, Audrey Blackman and French porcelain - and makes all his own glazes. “I have never purchased a commercial glaze in my life” he says. “Sometimes I test other potters’ glaze recipes, and I enjoy honing the results to fit my type of glazing and firing, but two different potters can use the same glaze and it won’t come out the same way. Sometimes it takes a year to develop a glaze from testing to production”.
Wide Rimmed Globe Vase
Wide Rimmed Globe Vase
Porcelain WE546 | 8cm x 11.5cm x 8cm £250
Porcelain WE548 | 10cm x 13cm x 10cm £225
In 2014 Hugh returned permanently to
Now Hugh has reached a point in his life
the UK and now works from the Toll House
where he is free to work as he pleases, when
Pottery at his home in West Cornwall. “The
he pleases, and concentrate on “simplicity
studio building dates from the early 19th
and function, knowing what the clay and I are
century, when tolls were taken on a small
capable of”. Of a typical day in the studio he
road between Truro and Falmouth” says
tells me “There is no typical day. It depends
Hugh. “I love not having to drive to work, I
what mood I am in, but what I can tell you
just walk through my beautiful garden with
is that in the last 50 years I’ve never spent
my beloved Border Terrier Budleigh beside
a day in the working week without throwing.
me”.
Wide Rimmed Globe Vase
Wide Rimmed Globe Vase
Porcelain WE549 | 9.5cm x 12.5cm x 9.5cm £250
Porcelain WE550 | 8cm x 14cm x 8cm £250
Open Bowl Porcelain WE539 | 31cm x 12cm x 31cm £400
Open Bowl Porcelain WE544 | 20cm x 7.5cm x 20cm £200
In my student days I found throwing a challenge, but no matter how much time it took and how hard it was I wanted to master it, and I still look forward to working on the wheel. I was lucky to have had two high-production workshops in my career, enabling me to hone the process of throwing hundreds of thousands of times, but it was grinding – that’s the word for it. Working repetitively like that takes such a toll on your body.
Open Bowl
Lidded Mushroom Jar
Porcelain WE547 | 15cm x 9cm x 15cm £160
Porcelain WE552 | 11.5cm x 10.5cm x 11.5cm £200
Bamboo Handled Teapot & Tea Bowl Porcelain WE556 | Teapot: 15cm x 35cm x 15cm | Tea Cup: 5.5cm x 5cm x 5.5cm £295
Bamboo Handled Lidded Swirl Jar
Large Bamboo Handled Lidded Jar
Porcelain with Bamboo WE555 | 9.5cm x 22.5cm x 9.5cm £265
Porcelain with Bamboo WE554 | 10cm x 27cm x 11cm £295
You don’t realise until later in life how taxing the process is to your joints, your back and your eyesight. We potters must be mad!”. The beautiful porcelain work Hugh makes now has earned him a reputation as one of Cornwall’s leading fine art potters, one who exhibits all over the world, and years of experience have brought him to his 50th year as a potter, an acknowledged master of his craft, utterly at ease with any clay, wheel or form.
Raku Fired Vessel, 2007 21cm x 62cm x 24cm From Hugh’s Personal Collectiopn Price on Application
“In spite of the pain” says Hugh, “this is where pleasure comes in: no thinking is required, it’s easy, even with porcelain. Potters who have mastered throwing with it will know exactly what I’m talking about”.
Words by Mercedes Smith | Photography by Chritine West
The Par ad e , Po l ze a th , Co rn wa l l , P L 2 7 6 S R 01208 869301 | art@whitewatercontemporary.co.uk www.whitewatercontemporary.co.uk @Whitewatercontemporary