GIVEN THAT the potter in the art world is, unfortunately, almost always regarded as the poor relation of the painter and the sculptor, the exhibition of Jack Doherty's ceramics in Newlyn Art Gallery is particularly welcome.
Appointed three years ago as the lead Potter and Creative Director of the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, a potter whose work has been described as possessing "a controlled clean purity which reflects an Asian sensibility of rich silence and oneness of thought", Jack Doherty was born in Coleraine, Co Derry.
A graduate of the Ulster College of Art and Design on completion of his studies he joined the Kilkenny Design Workshops where he worked as a studio potter within the ceramics department designing high quality products for the ceramics industry, and where it was not long before he was winning awards for his work. In 1974 he gained a gold medal at the international exhibition in Faenza and two years later struck gold again at the International Exhibition in Vallauris.
The 1970s, in fact, was a busy and successful decade for him. In 1977 he started the first workshop in Scarva, Co Armagh , an establishment which was soon exhibiting and selling its stoneware tableware in the UK, Germany and the USA, then in 1979 he was elected as a member of the working party set up by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to advise on the provision of funding for crafts in Ulster.
It was in the following decade, in 1983, that he came to this country, settling and establishing his workshop in Ross-an-Wye, Herefordshire.
While his days in his native Ulster had been "busy and successful", they were to seem relatively quiet compared to all he was to achieve, and is still achieving, here. Indeed, his list of credits is so long it is impossible to mention them all but, among a host of others, he worked for a long period as a part-time lecturer in ceramics at the Royal Forest of Dean College; in the early 1990s he was elected as a council member of the Craft Potters Association; he initiated and co-organised Salt & Soda, the first in a series of three conferences exploring areas of concern for potters using sodium vapour glazing, and he set up the first major ceramics affair in this country at Rufford in Nottinghamshire.
For several years he was an external examiner in BA Ceramics at the University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, and, as many will recall, he was director of St Ives International which organised Ceramica, the international festival of ceramics in Cornwall.
For good measure, he has also twice served as chairman of the Craft Potters Association, is chairman of Ceramic Arts, London, has exhibited extensively in this country and abroad during the past three decades or so and gained a considerable reputation and following for his work which now forms part of any number of public collections from that of the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent and Liverpool Museum to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Museum of Ceramics, Faenza.
Not bad going for one who has always followed the advise he was given early on in his career: "Just make the pots you want to make."
A specialist in porcelain, the soda-fired pieces he is showing here, "from delicate bowls to large-scale rugged forms", remind us that, as it has been said, "while porcelain should be thin, translucent and precious, it can also be robust, full of life and energy". One who sets out to "make beautiful things that people can use", Jack Doherty's ceramics are as good to look at, to have and to hold, as they are useful.
Admission is free, and they can be seen in Newlyn Art Gallery, 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday until April 9, and 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, April 11 to May 2.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN