Ceramic Mural By Potter

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 17

Ceramic Mural By Potter

An exhibition of work by the potter, Kenneth Clark, will be presented by the Canterbury Potters’ Association on Sunday.

The photograph shows Howard Williams, from Auckland, who works for Mr Clark. He is fixing a ceramic mural to the wall of the boardroom in Banbury Buildings, Leamington.

Mr Clark was born in Wellington in 1922 and educated at Nelson College. He served in the Second World War in New Zealand, and with the Royal New Zealand Navy in

Europe. He then studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and gained experience in several country workshops and potteries.

Mr Clark returned to New Zealand in 1950 with the idea of staying. He found that few people were doing pottery, and there was very little demand for his own work. He decided to return to England to obtain the industrial experience he lacked, and set up his own studio in London. He also taught part-time at the Goldsmith's College of Art and Training College, the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and the Camberwell School of Art Mr Clark made many individual pieces when starting

his own studio, but found a limited market for this type of work. He therefore developed a range of decorative tiles designed by his wife, Ann Wyn Reeves, and also started working in architectural ceramics.

He studied the coloured glazes which were particularly suitable for architectural work, though few people at that time were using colour in ceramics.

As well as handling a wide range of tiles and tile treatments, Mr Clark now works on commissioned designs and murals, does part-time designing for industry and designs for silver and other materials.

Commissions have Ineluded decorative tile panels for the

Aramoana, a large wall mural in ceramic relief for a children’s playground in the civic centre at Plymouth, and more recently a 20ft mural for the boardroom of a manufacturing company and a complete tiled interior for a ruler in the Near East

In 1963, Mr Clark published a book titled “Practical Pottery and Ceramics,” which is now in its second edition.

At present seven people are employed in his pottery. Mr Clark was specifically invited to submit to this exhibition a selection of decorated earthenware, in the colours for which his pottery has become famous. The exhibition will open at 2.30 pm. in the Little Woodware Shop, 12 Victoria street