Richard Godfrey Fellow CPA
Richard Godfrey's distinctive, sculptural ceramics are instantly recognisable with their bold shapes and colourful patterns which are a reflection of his first love, painting.
Richard's final body of work, produced in 2014 - the year in which he died - was a culmination of all he had learnt during his 40 years as an artist working in clay, combined with his love of painting the beautiful South Devon landscape which surrounded his cliff-top studio.
His ceramics are slab built using a technique that Richard developed over the course of his lifetime as a leading ceramicist. The sharp, crisp forms and sweeping curves are based on ideas from his sketchbooks, with imagery derived from small elements of much larger drawings, which Richard would mentally 'cut and paste' to create highly original patterns and designs. The use of a home-made spray gun to apply a range of coloured slips with hand-held stencils, creates areas of dramatic, overlapping colour - a 'trademark' of Richard's work.
Education
After completing a foundation year at Plymouth, where Chris Smith (Ceramics) and Dave Patten (Sculpture), were a big influence on him, Richard went on to do a degree at Bristol and again was fortunate to have tutors like Gillian Lowndes and Ian Auld, with a host of visiting lecturers, including Michael Cardew and David Leach. It was here that Richard learnt the basic techniques of hand building, throwing, kiln building and firing - and developed a love of glaze making and experimenting.
Richard was a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association and exhibited widely throughout the UK and internationally. 'Patterns & Patinas' Dec 2014, at Sculpt Gallery, was his final exhibition. Sadly Richard was not well enough to attend the show and passed a few days after its opening.
Richard's final body of work, produced in 2014 - the year in which he died - was a culmination of all he had learnt during his 40 years as an artist working in clay, combined with his love of painting the beautiful South Devon landscape which surrounded his cliff-top studio.
His ceramics are slab built using a technique that Richard developed over the course of his lifetime as a leading ceramicist. The sharp, crisp forms and sweeping curves are based on ideas from his sketchbooks, with imagery derived from small elements of much larger drawings, which Richard would mentally 'cut and paste' to create highly original patterns and designs. The use of a home-made spray gun to apply a range of coloured slips with hand-held stencils, creates areas of dramatic, overlapping colour - a 'trademark' of Richard's work.
Education
After completing a foundation year at Plymouth, where Chris Smith (Ceramics) and Dave Patten (Sculpture), were a big influence on him, Richard went on to do a degree at Bristol and again was fortunate to have tutors like Gillian Lowndes and Ian Auld, with a host of visiting lecturers, including Michael Cardew and David Leach. It was here that Richard learnt the basic techniques of hand building, throwing, kiln building and firing - and developed a love of glaze making and experimenting.
Richard was a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association and exhibited widely throughout the UK and internationally. 'Patterns & Patinas' Dec 2014, at Sculpt Gallery, was his final exhibition. Sadly Richard was not well enough to attend the show and passed a few days after its opening.
