CENTRE FOR MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
STUDIO CERAMICS AND ORIGINAL ARTWORK

Born in London, John Ward studied ceramics at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts with Hans Coper and Lucie Rie. He set up his first workroom in 1970 and taught part-time at an adult education institute until 1979 before moving to Wales to make pots full time. His central theme is simple hollow forms often derived from the bowl and usually decorated either with a black and white design or simple abstract designs using blue, green and ochre slip glazes. All his pots are fired to 1250° C in an electric kiln; those with coloured slip glazes are once fired.

He has exhibited extensively and his work is much sought after by collectors worldwide. He is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association.

I became involved with hand-building pots in the early sixties and still use the same basic method of adding flattened coils to a pinched base sometimes altering the form by cutting and rejoining to produce ridges and grooves between curving surfaces. I love the contact with clay at the soft to leather-hard stages and the measured but flexible process of evolving the form. Ideas develop during this method of construction but selection is obviously influenced by all that I come into contact with in my Pembrokeshire coastal surroundings’. JW

His work is in many public collections including; Cardiff Museum and Gallery; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hamburg Museum, Museum Bellerive, Zurich and Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris.