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Harlequin Gallery |
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I am pleased to welcome Douglas
Fitch to the Harlequin with the best of his wood-fired earthenware from a
number of firings he has had since last August. I suspect Doug’s name is unfamiliar to some
of you but he has been potting for the best part of 25 years. However, it is
only recently that it has become his full time occupation, after working for
a number of years as Technical Manager in the Faculty of Arts, University of
Plymouth. It was in the early 1980s that he studied pottery at the Derbyshire
College of Higher Education at the same time as Nic Collins. There they were
mates and this friendship has been renewed since Doug moved to Devon in 1990.
Besides making pots at Nic’s before opening his own pottery, Doug has been an
important member of the kiln firing team for Svend Bayer, Clive Bowen as well
as Nic over the years and he cites them alongside Michael Cardew as potters
who have inspired him. Doug makes country pots not only because he
wants to use a wood-fired kiln but also “because the countryside is an
intrinsic element within the fabric of my work. At Hollyford Pottery, all the
senses are stirred by the natural environment and the changing of the
seasons”. His pots made from a blend of local
earthenwares, such as Fremington clay and a gritty brick clay from Exeter,
are most certainly unfussy with no attempt at what he calls “prettiness”. He
goes on to say, “I strive to capture the tones and textures of the
countryside in my pots, choosing a basic palette of earth colours from the
naturally occurring minerals of the rural environment.” I understand that Doug was the “star” of
the “Celebration of Slipware – contemporary potters in earthenware”
exhibition held in Winchcombe last autumn despite the presence of
better-known names. Therefore I am looking forward to seeing the selection
that Doug has chosen for the Harlequin, as he seems very pleased with what
has been coming out of his kiln of late. |
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