It gives me great pleasure to be hosting the first exhibition of work from Mike Dodd's new pottery (the sixth in his long career), as Mike is without doubt one of the finest potters the United Kingdom has ever produced.

You don't only have to take my word for it. Phil Rogers, who is no mean potter himself, has written that Mike "is making some of the most exciting work ever seen in this country".

Mike initially took up pottery at Bryanston School, where Donald Potter, a sculptor and potter, who had been trained by Eric Gill, taught him. Potter surrounded his students with the work of Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew and had previously taught Richard Batterham, whose pottery Mike visited.

However, upon leaving school, Mike went to Cambridge University where he studied medicine. During his time there he decided that being a doctor was not for him and that he wanted to become a potter. This resulted in him going to the Hammersmith College of Art in London, after finishing his course at Cambridge, but he found it so bad that he left after a year. However, as he says "the influence of Leach, Cardew, Batterham and Hamada were enough" and he was able to start his first pottery in Sussex in 1968.

Throughout his career Mike has specialised in making reduction-fired stoneware and has continued to develop this using local materials. His work can be found in all the leading studio pottery collections in this country, including that of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, as well as in major private collections around the world.