Pat Southwood

I studied B.A Ceramic Design through Anglia Ruskin College, Cambridge, graduating in 1999 to set up my workshop next to Salhouse Broad in Norfolk. My work has always been about attempting to capture the essence of the land - and the patterns imposed on it by Man. ​ Between 1999 and 2007 I made several study trips to Mashiko in Japan to learn from potters such as Hamada Tomo-o, Matsusaki Ken and Kusakabe Masakazu and Euan Craig. The following year I was invited to exhibit in Osaka and then in Tokyo. Through a meeting with Wali Hawes at the Osaka exhibition I was invited to apply for a month long residency in Tokoname with IWCAT. This was an amazing experience and I was delighted to be invited back to Tokoname in 2010 to exhibit. I am delighted to be exhibiting in Tokoname once more in 2023- C19 allowing. ​ In 2005, with a bursary from Creative Arts East to work with local Thatchers and make work inspired by their Craft, I developed a glaze suitable for my electric kiln using the thatching reed that had been discarded. Using the thatch gave my work an originality and a sense of place unobtainable out side of the Broads area. ​ Beginning in 2017, Hoveton Great Broad was drained of silt by an ongoing Conservation project. With kind permission from the owner of the Broad I was able to collect some silt by boat. Now firing with my Fred Olsen design wood kiln, affectionately known as "Fast Freda" I developed a glaze from the silt. This then led to using the glaze with stretched forms and eventually to Soda firing in the wood kiln. Freda however didn't much care for this, so it was sadly a short lived soda romance. I continued to wood fire, with a small Fred Olsen design fast fire kiln until recently. ​ In 2018 I was commissioned by the Dean of Norwich Cathedral to make an enormous piece candle stand, this huge piece is now situated in the Lady Chapel for people to light a small candle for loved ones. It is lovely to have work in a permanent presence in my home city and to continue the tradition of potters having work in Cathedrals. ​ I revisited Japan in 2018, my 10th visit, this time with a fellow artist and the specific purpose of visiting the Temple and Shrine gardens to draw inspiration for forthcoming work and exhibitions. Having not quite seen all we needed to, a return trip was made in early 2020 providing me with superb images and memories. The exhibition ABSTRACT JAPAN finally took place in September 2021 at Mandell's Gallery in Norwich and was a great success.