A while back I was contacted by someone who had an old lamp made by B.C. potter Hilda K. Ross. I was pleased to receive the email as I had never found a piece of Ms. Ross' work before. She was an important early contributor to the B.C. pottery scene and  examples of her work are hard to find. I assume most of her pots are either in collections or have been lost to time.

Thumbing through my old exhibition catalogues I've always been impressed by how well her work showed and was profiled back in the 1950s and early 1960s but couldn’t readily find too much about her career. What follows is what I was able to summarize with a little digging…

Another notable achievement that comes up in my research is the work she did with Olea Davis, Reg Dixon, and Stan Clarke to help BC studio potters find viable sources of clay in the province. In 1958 they used a grant from the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation to prepare a report on British Columbia clays for the UBC Extension Department. Their findings were presented using examples of fired works with different clays in a well-received exhibit in the Spring of 1958 at the UBC Fine Arts Gallery. 

Hilda Ross continued teaching and working at the Pottery Hut until it was closed in 1966. She then opened and operated the Ross-Huyghe School of Pottery with her friend Avery Huyghe until retiring from potting in 1969.

During her career she actively exhibited widely in BC, Canada, and abroad - many at which she won awards. Her work was accepted to the Canadian Ceramics Biennial in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, and 1967. Other notable major exhibitions include the Universal and International Exhibition in Brussels in 1958, the 3rd International Exhibition of Ceramic Art in Prague 1962 (where she received a gold medal), the Department of Trade & Commerce Exhibitions in Berlin and Florence 1964, and the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67.

M's Ross' work is notable for it treatment of surface the glazes she used. Heavy textures and rollered finishes are common as in these examples...

​Hilda Ross' work is signed with her "H.K.R." initials (left) or with her full name "Hilda K. Ross" (hard to make out on the right). Pottery simply signed "Ross" is often mistakenly attributed to her.

After searching for years for a piece of work by Hilda Ross, I was able to buy the lamp. Recently I was fortunate enough to find another, and I think, better example of her work. This chun glazed and perfectly thrown bowl was likely made in the 1950s. It features a textured back and is 11" across by 3" high.

Every once in a while I come across a truly special piece of ceramic art that deserves its own post... This ceramic sculpture, shown below, was made in the early 1960s by Santo Mignosa. It stands an impressive 765 mm (30") tall and is 460 mm (18") wide across the top. Santo is known for his large sculptural pieces, a technique he learned in his native Italy before leaving his teaching job at the Institute of Art in Siracusa, and immigrating to Canada in 1957 to become a ceramics instructor alongside Olea Davis and Thomas Kakinuma at the UBC pottery hut in 1959.

At the time of it's creation in the early 1960s, Santo was teaching at the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson BC, with Zeljko Kujundzic. I've seen photos of other sculptural pieces Santo created during that time frame and can see Zeljko's byzantine-style influence in some of it. This one though is entirely Santo and may have been finished earlier when he was still teaching at UBC.

Always eager to show his work internationally, the sculpture, titled "Impressions of Vancouver, B.C." was accepted for the 22nd Ceramic National Exhibition in Syracuse New York. The show, held in 1962, was a survey of American and Canadian contemporary art pottery held annually and featured the best work on the continent.

"Impressions..." had long been in the possession of an art collector since purchasing it directly from Santo in Nelson in the mid 1960s. There it sat alongside world class pieces by Hans Coper and Toshu Yamamoto. It was important to the family of this gentleman that the Mignosa piece would find its way and end up in a collection where it would be fully appreciated and admired. It is, and now sits among works created by his friend Zeljko, perhaps some of which were thrown  or fired at the same time...

Arthur Handy was a Canadian sculptor who started his long career as an artist and teacher in ceramics before mastering the capabilities of other mediums. He would always return to clay periodically though, in his  exploration of abstract impressionism.

I was fortunate enough to acquire some pieces of his work some time ago, initially knowing very little about him. The pieces were magnificent - powerful and unlike anything else I have in my collection. With a little digging however, I came to be immensely impressed by the man, his accomplished career and of course by his art. And while I primarily focus on the work of BC artists, exceptions have to be made, and Arthur Handy’s work justify this.

Born in New York City in 1933, Handy grew up under the influence of the dynamic American art of Jackson Pollock and the improvisational prowess of Miles Davis. Handy graduated Magna cum laude with a BFA from Alfred University in 1959, and again with a MFA in Ceramics in 1960 and upon completion, immediately took a job as the Head of Ceramics at the Ontario College of Art where he stayed until 1966.

I met Des Loan in the fall of 1982. He was my high school English teacher and he was different than the rest of my teachers. Des taught differently, talking to us in seminar as opposed to marching us through a textbook. He told stories - including one I remember about his friend “Zeljko” who had been a prisoner of war during WWII. (I would later discover this man to be Zeljko Kujundzic, another prolific and important Canadian artist who spent a considerable part of his career in British Columbia). Another time I remember him singing to us in sonnet and then admonishing us for being embarrassed by it. Yes, Des was certainly different than the rest of the staff at my high school but I credit him for reigniting my interest in reading and writing that had been dispatched over the previous three years by the drudgery of a traditional education.

Their pottery career started later in the 1950s when Peg took a pottery course on hand building at the Naramata Summer School of the Arts with California potter Hal Riegger - who headed the pottery department at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

As it happened, the ceramic seed was now planted and Des was soon getting his hands in the clay too. By the early 1960’s Des and Peg had generated enough work and interest in what they were making that they began selling pottery directly from their home in Summerland. 

Wanting to further his ceramic skills and deepen his understanding of the whole process, Des enrolled in UBC Summer Extension Programs at UBC in Vancouver. The classes all took place at the “Pottery Hut” - the crucible of ceramic art in British Columbia. Starting in the early 1950s and on into the 1960s, the pioneer potters of B.C. learned from the likes of American luminaries Edith Heath, F. Carlton Ball and Marguerite Wildenhain and also from international artists like Alexander Archipenko and Kyllikki Salmenhaara. Des attended for two consecutive summers; the first hosted by Stan Clarke in 1961 and then with John Reeve in 1962. Reeve had just arrived back in Canada after completing his apprenticeship with Bernard Leach at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives England (1958 - 1961).

So began their fascination and journey with pottery. With an electric kiln to get them started, they established their first studio “Okanagan Pottery” on Bottleneck Drive in Summerland. Des was involved in a number of exhibitions during the 1960s, including the Western Ceramics touring exhibit in 1967. His work was one of many featured in this juried show of western Canadian artists that travelled to over a dozen galleries.

​His drive to explore, experiment and have a dedicated space for making pottery led Des to make the move to Peachland and build the Okanagan Pottery Studio in 1968. Right on the side of Highway 97, just past the foot of Princeton Avenue, Des constructed his studio facing the lake and looking out across at Rattlesnake Island. Here they had both a retail and studio space that was easily accessible to the public. Another big step forward here was the purchase of a gas fired kiln for producing stoneware and porcelain work. This larger scale kiln allowed for not only a huge range of glaze possibilities but also sculptures and larger scale ceramic vases like the one shown below. This is a collaborative piece signed by both Peg and Des and dates to around 1972.

The 1960s and 1970s were exciting times in B.C. pottery. Artists were coming into their own, programs and careers were becoming established, and the exchange of ideas was in full swing. The Leach apprentices were back from St. Ives and luminaries like Wayne Ngan were emerging. Many notable artists moved freely between B.C. and Alberta sharing ideas and influence. Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, Nelson, Vancouver and the Island were all very prolific hubs of creation.
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The Okanagan valley was no different. With the passing of the Schwenks in the mid 1960s, it was the next wave of Okanagan potters like the Loans, Zeljko Kujundzic, Frances Hatfield, Walter Dexter, Leonhard Epp and Frank Poll who would create their own creative epicentre. While Dexter’s stay was fairly brief (he would leave for Nelson in 1968 to head the Kootenay School of the Arts) - Des, Zeljko and Frank would form three of the Five Okanagan Contemporary Artists collective. Along with Weldon Munden and LeRoy Jensen (later of the Limner group in Victoria) the group injected a great deal of energy and leadership into the valley art scene.

Looking at Des Loan pieces created during these years you can see the mutual influence and interchange of ideas between many of these potters. You can see it the works of Kujundzic, Mignosa, and Poll at this time. The influence of Thomas Kakinuma can be seen on some of the figural animals Peg produced during these years. You can also see it in the work of his friend Les Manning who asked Des if he could work at the studio for part of the year during his sabbatical from the Banff Centre in the early 1980s. 
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Les and Des had a great rapport with one another and inspired each other in clay and philosophy. Des had such an appreciation and deep understanding of literature that he could easily share and discuss at depth a great variety of authors, poets and playwrights. Les found this most inspiring and would often tell Des how he would incorporate ideas and quotes he had learned from Des in lectures and keynotes he would deliver.

For Des, having Les working in the studio opened his eyes to a whole new range of design ideas and especially glazes. Les was a great artist and especially keen as a careful technician in formulating and firing a wide range of very interesting glazes. Des continued to use many of the recipes Les shared with him from that time. Especially a Shino glaze of Japanese origin that Des used right up to his final days of working with clay. 

When I was doing some research on Des' pottery career I connected with his son-in-law Peter Flanagan. Peter is also a talented and widely regarded potter who has been actively creating for the past 40+ years. Peter is known for the incredibly large plates he throws - some requiring 70 lbs of clay! They’re impressive and they’re beautiful. You can check out Peter’s work here.
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One of the things Peter impressed on me was that Des was a Renaissance man. He had varied interests and was good at many things. He enjoyed playing his grand piano for visitors to his home. He was an avid painter in oils and exhibited throughout the Okanagan. He was also interested in photography who had a knack for portraiture and candid capture. Des was also a published poet, his works appearing in literary journals and also in a book of his own collected works. He shared this interest with his friend George Ryga, a notable writer from the valley whom Des first befriend in the early 1960s.

Peter also shared an excerpt of one of Des’ poems with me and reading it immediately took me back to 1982, to my desk by the window on the second floor, to my English teacher reading poetry aloud to the class…

last night
I held in sleep
a hollow cylinder
of carved Brazil nut
a curved window in it opened
on a totally negative presentiment
a chocolate Haida face
with empty eye sockets

today at the kickwheel
two angled wire-cuts
in a cylinder of clay
a final cut at the base pick it up to ball and discard the excess
folding in the pointed flaps
and through the window of the severed underside
my unremembered dream
lies once again in my fingers
I honour the moment
by making it the handle
of a new pot
which ironically was my intended purpose