JOHN REEVE,

John Reeve at Tam Irving's studio, Fisherman's Cove, West
Vancouver, B.C., late 1970s. Courtesy of Ron Vallis.
Photo: Sally Michener

1929 - 2012

By Nora Vaillant

With sadness we mark the passing of John Reeve, potter, teacher and
friend to many of us in his former home of British Columbia. John
died in Abiquiu, New Mexico on June 28 after a prolonged illness. He
was born in Barrie, Ont. in 1929 and attended the Vancouver School
of Art from 1953 to 1955. John traveled to England in 1957 where
he studied with Colin Pearson and Harry Davis before becoming an
apprentice at the Leach Pottery in 1958. Upon his return to Vancouver
in 1961, John taught many aspiring potters through the UBC Extension
Department and the Vancouver School of Art. His 1972 exhibition at
the Vancouver Art Gallery curated by Doris Shadbolt made a lasting
impression on viewers. From 1977 to 1979, John served as the head of
the ceramics program at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

John taught and worked across three countries over the course of
his long life. In England, he established Longlands Pottery, taught at
Farnham School of Art and returned for a time to the Leach Pottery.
In the United States, he spent extended periods at the home of his
friend and fellow Leach alumnus, Warren MacKenzie. He worked
in MacKenzie’s studio and was invited to teach at the University
of Minnesota on numerous occasions. He traveled extensively in
California and Colorado offering workshops and making pots. He
is known for his pioneering work in the exploration of porcelain
clay bodies and his expertise in glaze technology. In the late 1980s
John settled down in New Mexico where he became involved in the
development of Santa Fe Clay Co.

The 2004 exhibition, Thrown: Influences and Intentions of West
Coast Ceramics held at UBC’s Belkin Art Gallery and two additional
exhibitions of his work at the B.C. Gallery of Ceramics, brought John
back to Vancouver for several visits in recent years during which he
made pots at Martin Peter's Dunbar studio.

John was a superb potter, a master of form and a natural teacher.
He had a powerful influence on potters from many communities
during his eighty-three years, often surprising and inspiring us with
his unique perspective. One student’s memory of a comment made by
John at a workshop captures his intuitive relationship to both clay and
teaching: “Some people try to centre clay and others let the clay centre
them.” He will be missed.

New Website: Canadian Studio Ceramics, 1900 to the Present

Request for Information and Assistance

‘This is to announce the development of a “one-stop” website focused.

on Canadian studio pottery. Individuals, organizations and institutions
are invited to participate in providing content for the site. The site will
have the following four objectives.

1. To document the development of studio ceramics from
around 1900 to the present: artists, aesthetics, styles, schools,
organizations, collectors.

2. To develop a venue for creators, collectors and educators to
share information and knowledge.
To document “who's who” in the many branches of the

Canadian ceramic world.

4, To provide a more open forum for the sharing of historical

ceramic information.

I am interested in archival, historical, anecdotal, pictorial, and
biographical data, information and sources. For those wishing to
participate I will be willing also to share my own research results over
the past three decades. In other words, the site could develop more
as a Commons than one individual’s storehouse. Intellectual property
tights will of course be respected.

For those interested please contact Barry Morrison at:

barrymorrison9@gmail.com
or

http://ca.linkedin.com/in/barryemorrison

GUT
of BRITISH
Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « July/August 2012 8

COLUMBIA
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