"I live with ceramic vessels. Their forms and volume, edges and textures, spill from the studio into every room in the house. Displayed on ledges, windowsills and mantlepieces, they create an intervention with domestic space and daily life. My way of life and work is inseparable. In these living spaces my pots speak for themselves."
Irish Potter Jack Doherty lives and works in Mousehole, Cornwall. He makes porcelain vessel forms that are thrown on the potter's wheel and then carved and shaped when the clay is soft to reflect the fluidity of the material. His elemental colour and surface textures are created by the fusion of fire and soda, leaving behind a subtle palette of smokey grey, lemon, russet and turquoise.
Doherty was born in County Derry and studied Ceramics at the Ulster College of Art and Design, Belfast. He graduated in 1971 and worked at Kilkenny Design Workshops before establishing his studio first in Co Armagh and then in Herefordshire, UK. From 2008 - 2013 Doherty was appointed as the first Lead Potter and Creative Director at the refurbished Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall, where he established the new production studio.
Jack is involved with contemporary ceramics on many levels; as a lecturer, curator and conference organiser but primarily as an artist and maker. He was Chairman of the Craft Potters Association for 12 years, a founder member of Ceramic Art London and has been guest editor of Ceramic Review magazine. His work is exhibited internationally and is represented in many public collections including the Irish Contemporary Ceramics Collection at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, the National Museum of Ireland and the Ulster Museum.