Peter Hayes
Peter Hayes was born in Birmingham in 1946. Between 1960 and 1967 he attended Moseley School of Art and Craft. Peter’s ceramics lead an unusually adventurous life before they reach the gallery.
Not only are they subjected to the hazards of raku firing, involving huge shocks in temperature and thick, blackening smoke, but they are submerged in a flowing river for months at a time. Hayes’ studio is an old Toll house on a bridge over the Avon. Below is a wooden deck that juts out from the bank, and if you stand there and peer into the river, you will see several long pale shapes staring back at you – other pieces are dispatched to Cornwall to be ravished by the tide for a while.
After travelling and working in Africa, India, Japan and Korea for almost 10 years, Peter Hayes arrived back in England in 1982 and converted the toll house into a studio in Bath.
He has developed his thoughts and ideas using many of the techniques and methods learnt on his travels. By building up textured clays combined with burnishing and polishing the surface, Peter achieves opposites of rough and smooth with finishes from weathered clay to sun baked leather. The use of a variety of clays allows him scope in which to work, giving each piece its individual status.
In recent years Peter has been working in India where he has established a craft village where he works with Indian craftsmen. This immersion in Indian craft culture has had an influence on his current pieces and the use of a wider range of materials
