Description
‘Watchful Bird’
Collect from gallery £150
Including UK delivery £165
H 18 x handle to toe-tip 10 x W 9.3 cm
Showing in our winter Exhibition 2023 ‘Winter Curiosities’ opening on Saturday 4th November
Duncan White was born in 1959. After leaving school in the late ’70’s, where Duncan didn’t get to study art, he worked for the Royal Navy as a stores assistant in Wiltshire.
In the mid ’80’s his mum dragged her reluctant son to the Jackfield Museum in Ironbridge. He was captivated by the ceramics, finding he couldn’t leave. Their forms and colours really had an impact on him so within the year he took a Foundation Course at Swindon College of Arts and Design. He then went to North Staffordshire Polytechnic where he took a multi disciplinary course specialising in ceramics. In 1987 he moved to South Glamorgan Institute of Art and Design where he gained an M.A. The following year he moved to Shropshire working at Culmington Pottery and then on to set up his own studio workshop making items such as architectural features on a commission basis.
Since the late ’80’s he has been fortunate to produce work full time, working towards annual exhibitions, until Covid struck.
Duncan continues to produce a range of pottery along with mixed media work for exhibition.
Duncan has recently found out that a relative of his had worked in the Jackfield Factory way back in the 1840’s, this was a sign! She must have been waiting for him!
Duncan is an enthusiastic collector of antique ceramics and other collectable artefacts and his own creations appear at first glance to suggest tiny but valuable archaeological finds that could be found locked away in a museum’s display case. His constructions are witty and amusing but with serious undertones.
He has exhibited at The Marlin Gallery, London, The Silk Top Hat in Ludlow and The Old School Gallery in Bleddfa.
We are excited to welcome Duncan for the first time at Old Chapel Gallery, we hope his intricately created lidded bird pots put a smile on your face!
When his young niece came to visit, he used to entertain her with a parrot glove puppet, which developed a life of its own. When she grew too old to be amused by her embarrassing uncle’s puppetry, he made her an outlandish ceramic bird as a birthday gift in an affectionate reference to it. This proved the inspiration for his characterful lidded birds.
