Peter Black

To date I have focused on making salt glazed porcelain and stoneware pots including functional as well as one-off decorative or sculptural pieces.

In my youth I collected (mainly damaged) Chinese Kangxi and 18C European porcelain, regularly visiting Portobello and Bermondsey Market at 6am.

In January 2022 I was very fortunate to meet and start an ongoing dialogue with Fergus Downey who challenged me to explore ideas beyond my work to date.

This fortuitous meeting has been the catalyst for my current body of work.
In my work I welcome contrasts and the unexpected: adding tactile banding to
classical forms; celebrating an earlier classical jug form by placing it on a plinth; a
“ribbon” handle with a twirly tail; the contrast of the classically inspired form in
porcelain with a salt glaze surface treatment. I feel this adds to the conversation. I use salt glaze as it has a beauty, subtle complexity, depth, sparkle and texture unmatched by other glazes. But its colour palette is limited (bright colours do not survive the salt kiln firing), and expression must be achieved mostly through form, style.

For me colour offers scope for an alternative and perhaps more complex dialogue. People experience colour differently, influenced by their own makeup, past associations, and culture; a single strong colour will trigger very different memories and emotions in individuals. With this new work I have attempted to exploit these properties of primary and secondary colours; the pieces will be attention seeking and hopefully trigger a reaction, questions, emotions.