Exhibitors who last weekend opened their Sunshine Coast ceramics studios for self-guided tours were bowled over by the results.
The second annual Pottery Prowl was the brainchild of Dawn Thomson, who operates Beach Avenue Pottery in Roberts Creek. She modelled her event on the Coast Cultural Alliance’s popular Art Crawl — which last autumn featured 169 destinations. Thomson was deliberate about inviting a modest number of participants. At its 2022 outset, the tour included nine locations. This year, numbers grew to 14 studios and almost two dozen participating artists.
“This was my little fantasy after the Art Crawl was all over,” said Thomson. “I kept hearing from people that they just couldn’t get everywhere, even when just trying to visit potters. So I found this weekend niched in here and put the invitation out to a dozen or more potters, and everyone jumped on board. And it’s going to grow — there are already five or six potters who want to join for next year.”
Participants reported scores of visitors at a steady rate over July 8 and 9.
Liz de Beer, at Langdale’s Klaywerks Studio, was engulfed by former associates from the pottery studio at North Vancouver’s Parkgate Community Centre, where she was the studio manager and resident instructor. Visitors travelled from the Lower Mainland to browse her gallery of works that fuse motifs from de Beer’s South African homeland with depictions of unmistakably Canadian wildlife.
“This year, we got more sponsorships and funds to print our Pottery Prowl programs, so even more potters than before are taking part,” said de Beer. Illustrator Kim LaFave was conscripted to design promotional materials for the two-day event.
Some destinations, like the Forst Pottery Studio in Gibsons, included work by affiliated artists. Roxanne Hoffman and Betty Ackroyd exhibited their ceramics alongside Patricia Forst, who three years ago founded a pottery club that uses her kiln and workspace. Forst’s collection includes clay wall murals tinted by a combination of manganese and iron oxide instead of traditional glazes.
For Roxanne Hoffman, pottery has become a channel for her newfound Métis identity. “I grew up in Manitoba, but my family didn’t talk about our heritage at all,” said Hoffman. “Then the Manitoba Métis Federation did my family tree for me, and I learned much more about it.”
Many of Hoffman’s ceramics bear a distinctive painting scheme that emulates handcrafted beadwork. “A big part of Métis culture is beading,” Hoffman added. “It’s been fun to learn more about it, but also to incorporate it into my work.”
Each Pottery Prowl exhibitor displayed distinctive modes of expression, whether shaping clay on a wheel or by hand. James Bennett, of Davis Bay, creates stoneware and porcelain sculptures inspired by subaquatic creatures. Anne Crook, from her Pebble Beach Art Studio in Sechelt, fashions functional ceramic birdhouses. Tim Niebergall, of Spirited Ceramics, has a repertoire that includes oversize and richly-ornamented sinks.
For Naomi Brand, who owns Huckleberry Studio in Halfmoon Bay, a broken thumb from a mountain biking accident led to an innovative cup design. “I call them my dignity mugs,” she said of her two-handled vessels crafted for people with dexterity challenges. “If they’re shaky or weak, they have something extra to hold onto. And they’re not plastic. Before it became a thing on Instagram, I was doing ergonomic handles on purpose.”
In Egmont, at the Geopia Gallery and Garden, Pia Sillem explained that clay artists who use a wood-fired kiln revere unexpected colours and textures that evoke their work’s earthen origins. “This is what interests us, as artists,” she said, “the gnarliness of things.”
A photo essay featuring portraits of all Pottery Prowl participants is available by browsing to michaelgurney.com/culture.
