In the studio with….Richard Pomeroy
11 August 2021
Artist and potter Richard Pomeroy is based in Bruton. He grew up in Somerset and after a degree in Art History at Manchester University worked in contemporary art galleries in London including the Anthony d’Offay Gallery with artists Beuys, Keifer, Long and Gilbert and George. In 1987 he set up the pioneering Richard Pomeroy Gallery near Tower Bridge, now known as Purdy Hicks Gallery in South Kensington. He became a full-time artist in the late 90’s and has exhibited in the UK and in Europe. He was previously Chairman of Somerset Art Works, a charity devoted to promoting the arts in Somerset.
What made you become an artist?
I am not convinced that people become artists. I think you are born an artist or you’re not. It may be a disappointment to hear that for a lot of people but there is this desire in some people to make something concrete, in some shape or form, the ideas you have in your head. I just had that since I was a tiny child; I saw a grasshopper and I wanted to draw a grasshopper, etc. It is quite a burden, it’s quite hard to concentrate on things which aren’t to do with being creative. So, I am very bad at administration, I keep putting things off. And this is my first Zoom interview; I don’t put myself in that position willingly, and it does affect your career, but what I really like to do is make things. I make an idea in my head to come out as something tangible or viewable. I used to make a lot of paintings and drawings and it is so nice to see these images again and again over your lifetime. Your own images and of course other people’s images, it is a lovely thing to see someone else’s creativity.
During lockdown many artists engaged through social media such as Instagram, some feeling quite pressured about having to do this. How did you go about engaging during the pandemic?
I felt very lucky, I did do quite a lot of Instagram posts, but I was able to just concentrate on making, which was perfect for me. In fact, for many hours, day after day, I made an enormous amount of ceramics, especially in the first lockdown. And then I did see quite a few people in the second lockdown and later on. I think the studio environment isn’t intimidating for those who are worried about meeting people in a lockdown situation. Wearing a mask in a big studio is quite easy so I saw people that wanted to visit and see the pottery, and I didn’t feel lonely or out of touch.
How do you keep up with what is happening in the art world?
I am self-taught as an artist and self-taught as a potter and I think a very, very important aspect of being self-taught is that you are kind of on your own and that is how you like it. I enjoy just focusing quite narrowly on what I do, I do go and see shows, I am interested in other pottery, but it is not a must. I don’t have to, I am really happy getting on on my own. I get a very good magazine, Ceramic Review, every month and I get to see what is going that way. But in terms of seeing other shows or meeting other artists it is not a necessary thing, I don’t feel I need to meet with like-minded people and talk about what I do.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
The material itself. I make my work by rolling out the clay, I don’t use a wheel. The clay dictates more or less what I do. I chose porcelain because it’s translucent and because it is very white so the colours that I use show up magnificently on the white background. And also, it makes a nice tinging noise, especially when it is empty, I like that. It’s almost glass; it is very exciting to make it, to get it out of the kiln with its bright colours and its zingy quality. It’s the material which has sort of said ‘this is what you can do, and this is how you do it’. It taught me; porcelain taught me; I think.
What can you tell us about the colours you use?
There are of course thousands of colours I could choose from. I chose to make colourful ceramics because I came from a painting background and the love of colour in paint. It is so wonderful to be able to apply paint to a canvas with a bright brush, it is a lovely experience, and to be able to apply this to ceramics is just wonderful. I go to Bath Potters, my local suppliers and I gaze at all the wonderful colours they have and choose the brightest ones. There are four or five greens, three or four blues and oranges, I like to have this variety. I like to have every colour possible really.
What is your favourite work of art?
That is so hard to answer! Because I did art history at university and I did art history as an A level, and my whole background was being involved with painting and sculpture, I’ve seen everything almost, well that is what it feels like. So, in certain moods it’s certain things. But so often I go back to those very precise Dutch 17th Century artists like Vermeer and De Hooch. I think probably a Vermeer is one of my favourites, and the painting that everyone knows, Girl with the Pearl Earring, is an absolutely beautiful painting. Every time you look at it you can see different things. In one way he’s catching the mood of a young girl in a special light but in another way, he’s catching the wonderful details of the room around her and the life they led. And the other thing he is doing is just painting with extraordinary skill. At the time of his painting, he was doing what was possible for an artist to do at the time, taking it to a kind of technological level that artists hadn’t taken it to and he was using all sort of machinery and tools to make those paintings. He was certainly a contemporary artist looking at what was around him at the time to make the best paintings possible, the most impressive art.
What is your favourite art book?
There is a book by [Soetsu] Yanagi – The beauty of everyday things, it is to do with what I am doing now. Yanagi was a wonderful Japanese man, with a very sophisticated appreciation of ceramics and an understanding of the value of something that is imperfect, made by a craftsman for his or her own use. An everyday object which has an intrinsic beauty that often goes way beyond the objects made for the emperors and high-status people. They are imbued with the time they were made and the purpose they were made for. They have a terrific kind of purpose in life, a value of purpose, which is lovely.
What would you like a collector to look at and know about your work?
I think the fact that I don’t use a wheel is important, that I roll out the clay. It is very much hand-built and also that I am self-taught. I don’t really belong in a classic scene of ceramics. Bernard Leach was a wonderful example of a potter who placed himself perfectly within a great tradition of ceramics. There are many British ceramicist now who still work in that scene, but I don’t; I started off on my own little road and that is where I am staying. The other thing is I am making these as usable, useful functional pieces, they are not works of art.
And there is another scene of contemporary ceramics which is to branch into art. Edmund de Waal is a classic case of that. But many of the famous ceramicists at the moment would be just as happy showing in a Hauser & Wirth gallery in the west end of London as in a ceramics shop somewhere. Mine are not like that, they are just homeware.
There has been an ongoing discussion around arts and crafts and over the last couple of years, the disciplines seem to merge again with craft makers having shows in art galleries. What is your view around this?
I think it is a good thing. I used to work in the contemporary art world, at Anthony d’Offay Gallery for instance. That crossover between craft and art is fine, I don’t have a problem with it. In fact, the making of paintings is a crafty thing, to manipulate brushes on a surface or to manipulate materials to make a three-dimensional object is very craft orientated; you have to be good at your craft really to make art. There is a big crossover and always has been.
Richard’s ceramics can be bought through his website www.richardpomeroyporcelain.com