Alex Lowery, Richard Batterham & Petter Southall – Recent paintings, pottery & furniture
In a show of strength for the quality of art and craftsmanship in Dorset, Alex Lowery, Richard Batterham and Petter Southall will all show major selections of recent work at Sladers Yard, West Bay, from 22 June to 28 July 2013. All three are artists whose dedication to their discipline over many years results now in work of extraordinary beauty and depth. All three work with a technical ease and flow earned from experience. Alex Lowery’s paintings are filled with atmosphere and the vigour of well-known places looked at afresh. Both Richard Batterham and Petter Southall have refused to be distracted from the functional. Their work is made to be used and to enrich the life of the user every day. Relating always to function and to the human body that will pick up a pot or sit on a chair imparts a deep-rooted authenticity and warmth to these stunning pieces of work.
Alex Lowery
Alex Lowery’s new paintings are exploratory, taking his distinctive style down bold new turnings. He has long had the ability to find the essence of place but now he is presenting his places in new lights. In these paintings his colours are unusual, fresh and spring-like, his angles of view odd and reductive, causing the viewer to pause, look again and see the poetry of his vision.
He paints West Bay, Portland, and as a new departure Seaton, and stays faithful to these nearby places. Yet his paintings often express something one recognises but may not have consciously noticed. He does not choose the obviously picturesque, but takes the overlooked, the marginal and unconventional, setting them before us transformed into something extraordinary.
Alex Lowery studied at Bath Academy, Sir John Cass School of Art and the Central School of Art. In London he has had three solo shows with Art First and has shown at Browse & Darby in Andrew Lambirth’s Critic’s Choice exhibition and at the Estorick Gallery. He lives in Charmouth with the painter Vanessa Gardiner and their daughter Jessie. He has had solo shows at Sladers Yard in 2006, 2009 and this is his third.
Richard Batterham
Richard Batterham, born 1936, became interested in pottery at a very young age at Bryanston School, where an interest in craft and design was greatly encouraged. He learnt under the guidance of Donald Potter, who was a student of Eric Gill and had also worked with Michael Cardew at Winchcombe. After National Service, Batterham worked for two years under Bernard Leach at the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall. There he and his future wife, Dinah Dunn, met Atsuya Hamada, a son of Shoji Hamada. ‘I think we got a lot from him,’ Batterham says, ‘about how to handle clay. We were very lucky.’
In 1959 they left to set up their own pottery at Durweston outside Blandford. He works alone and now has about five firings a year producing some of his best work to date. His pots are often referred to as the finest domestic stoneware in the Leach tradition, although he feels more in tune with the attitudes of Michael Cardew. His pots are made to enrich life rather than to adorn it. A superb craftsman, his colours are soft bues and greens through to caramel, browns and blacks with the nature of his glazes varying from thin and bright to thicker softer glazes. His forms are functional – simple, satisfying and beautiful.
Describing his own pots, Richard Batterham refers to some of them as ’soft’ or ‘kind’, emphasising their human quality. ‘Michael Cardew used to say form was everything, and form is very important, but I tend to feel that it’s how things are handled that really makes a difference. I like to make something you can hold. If someone really hugs onto a pot, that’s lovely and just how it should be.’ With a warm smile and soft voice, he seems a happy man, quietly working away. Understated about his own pre-eminence, he says, ‘You just get into the right frame of mind and get on with it.’
His work is in numerous museums and private collections and has been shown all over the world. This is his first exhibition at Sladers Yard.
Petter Southall
Petter Southall has been making his distinctive steam bent furniture in his Dorset workshop since 1991. Highly regarded for his design sense as well as his immaculate craftsmanship, his work is unusual being made almost entirely in solid oak, ash and other hardwoods native to this country which he bends into playful and visually exciting curves, twists and rings. His finishes are natural and pleasing to the touch as well as being healthy, fume-free and practical to maintain. His work is in private collections and public spaces all over the UK and in private collections in Europe and America.
For further information please contact Anna Powell on 01308 4589511 or gallery@sladersyard.co.uk
