Angels and Architecture
Phil Mumford and Steve Mattison's recent demonstration day at Coleg Meirion Dwyfor was an enlightening experience for many of the audience and an interesting opportunity to see two potters with very differing styles at work. Meri Wells reports on the day.

Two well known members of NWP demonstrated their skills and techniques, sharing, in the relaxed atmosphere of the day, information and ideas on clay, art and life. During his slide talk Phil led us through his potting life from the early days of foundation at Epsom Art School where he confessed to climbing through a window at a weekend in order to fire the gas kiln - something not allowed to students but resulting in a disaster and a luscious chun glaze. He brought back memories of the ramshackle greenhouse arrangements of sheds that was the ceramics department, tucked behind the rather grand building that housed the fashion and millinery department in the shadow of the huge cedar tree. Phil and I share a common starting point in Epsom Art School. However, Phil's revolt against Leach-a-like brown casseroles was less overt than my own and he progressed to Camberwell where his influences were Lucie Rie, Coper and Colin Pearson and especially two pieces of work by Cardew - a rose bowl and a cider jar.

In reaction to the majority of the work produced at this time Phil began working in a precise style using pale colours. His interest developed in form and in the tension created by the use of mixed media. Much of Phil's work has been domestic ware and after his move to Port Dinorwic, in North Wales, with Jenny the fashion for goblets kept them in jars of Marmite for some years. There were also opportunities for more sculptural slabbed pieces which were prized for use in the Japanese art of flower arranging known as Ikibana. When fashions changed Phil continued to develope these pieces for display in their own right as sculptural objects. Phil's interest in architecture is most reflected in his composite forms where he juxtaposes related forms, drawing attention to proportion and mass. The evolution of his work has been gradual but whatever he makes an abiding obsesion has been "the interface between table top and the work".

During the demonstration Phil was informative and relaxed as befits an experienced teacher. He uses a minimum of tools, throws quite dry and enjoys turning. When working at home he usually operates on two wheels saving much movement of bats. For the demonstration Phil had brought a variety of pre-thrown and turned leather hard pots. Some were tall and flared, some concave. With a sure eye he mixed and matched these pieces, balancing one on top of the other until the right combination was achieved. After glazing with manganese and an addition of copper oxide bands to produce gold, the pieces are fired in an oxidising atmosphere. The finished work has a calm and gentle strength. A reflection of the man who has an obsession with form and function, architecture and his environment.

Steve is also a natural teacher but unlike Phil he's a self confessed accumulator of tools, albeit unconventional ones often gleaned from foreign kitchen shops. Steve was demonstrating the unique way in which he makes his tall, elegant figures. Using a sanded, cloth covered board, a selection of wooden rods and an electric paintstripper gun, Steve formed these fine, thin figures with surprising speed. Pushing a rod through a coil of clay - porcelain, raku body, earthstone or terracotta, he gently rolls over the sand stretching the clay into a hollow tube, wider in the centre then at either end. Steve then manipulates this tube, pinching at the shoulders, twisting necks and suggesting lower limbs with gentle taps from flat sticks.

He left them to rest while he constructed the bases which are supported on conical points. Having stiffened the clay with the heat gun he, almost nonchalently, balanced two or three on each base, arranging these groups into families or couples. The figures are then stained with oxides and soda fired in a wood kiln. All this is a departure for Steve from his laminated raku vessels but it is a change that he traced back to visits to ceramic studios in eastern Europe. Steve's slide talk began with pictures of his grandfather who was a potter and designer working for many companies including the bone china factory at Beleek in Ireland. Steve remembered visiting the huge tunnel kilns at Wedgewood as a small boy and marvelling at them. His grandmother was one of Charlotte Rhead's paintresses and his mother also decorated work for her father. So it is no surprise that Steve chose firstly ceramics at college, rebelled into graphics and has returned finally to clay. The excitement of fire has always been his greatest interest.

Steve showed many slides of land and sky-scapes, showing just how directly these have influenced his raku work. On travelling to Romania and Hungary he was struck by the different colours in the landscape and particularly on the vernacular architecture. This experience opened him to the influences of the other ceramic artists in the studios in which he worked. Artists like Peteris Martinsons, Vaclav Serak, Sandor Kecskemeti, left deep impressions on him - not only for their work but their belief and commitment to their art. The majority of these artists hand built sculptural forms and the freedom and exchange of the symposium situation allowed Steve to explore a new direction which has resulted in these figures which are his current interest.

After an inconclusive discussion on at what point the figure become male or female Steve attached small, striated wings high on their shoulders. Are they angels then? No, well not really angels. What then? Whatever Steve feels that his figures represent his beautiful groups do look as though they really could stand together on the head of a pin.

Visit Steve Mattison's website at www.carrog.co.uk