Bowl

Robin Welch transforms clay into a sculptural canvas. This bowl rises from a tall foot ring and is layered in matt and chalky washes of blue and white, under which the grogged clay body is still visible. Gestural lines and abstract markings appear both bold and as traces beneath slips. The vivid blue, restricted to the upper half of the bowl is a colour Welch has used continuously, he likens it to the flashes of blue coral he saw when living in Australia during the 1960s. [1] Painting is central to Welch’s practice and the painters Mark Rothko, Yves Klein and Robert Motherwell are important influences. [2] Welch’s pots are constructed from a combination of throwing and handbuilding.

During the 1950s Welch worked at the Leach Pottery in St Ives. He became a ceramic technician at the Central School of Arts in the mid-1950s, at a time when students included Ruth Duckworth and Gordon Baldwin. In 1965 Welch set up Stradbroke Pottery in Suffolk. Welch’s work is wide-ranging, it includes domestic ware designs for Wedgwood and large sculptural works.

Sim Panaser, August 2020

[1] Robin Welch (7 of 7), interviewed by Hawskmoor Hughes, (2008), <https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Crafts/021M-C0960X0085XX-0009V0> [accessed 14/08/20].

[2] Robin Welch quoted in ‘65 Years in Clay: Ceramic Preview’, Ceramic Review, 288 (November/December 2013), 62-63, (p.62).