Robin Welch was born in 1936, and over a 60 year career has developed a considerable reputation firstly as a production potter, and latterly for his highly expressive individual pots.

He studied painting and sculpture at Penzance School of Art, studied at the Central School of Art, London and worked part-time at the Leach Pottery between 1953 and 1959. He then worked in Australia for several years before returning to England in 1965 to set up Stradbroke Pottery in Eye, Suffolk.

Known for the last 30 years as a maker of bold, freely constructed studio pieces, his background as a production potter and maker of domestic ware situates his work firmly in the craft tradition, though the acknowledged influence of Turner, the St Ives School and Mark Rothko amongst others have allowed him to develop a truly individual voice in the world of contemporary ceramics.

While Bernard Leach was an undoubted influence on his early career, forward thinking teachers at the Central School of Art such as sculptor William Turnbull and ceramicist Gordon Baldwin inspired a broader perspective in Welch’s work and he began making pots developed increasingly from his drawing practice in much the same way that paintings are made. Accordingly his pots can be approached as artworks as much as ceramic forms. Welch’s individually thrown, coiled and slabbed stoneware pots are decorated with glazed and unglazed bands of varying colour and texture, and his inventive combinations of form, colour, slips and glazes make these a sophisticated collection of ceramic objects which relate closely to many aspects of both Modern art and contemporary design.

Robin Welch has designed for major companies including Wedgwood, Midwinter and Denby Pottery and his work is held in public collections in the UK, Australia and the Netherlands and at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

This exhibition will be on show in the Pottery’s entrance gallery from 12 Sept to 14 November. All pots are for sale.