Stephen Benwell

Stephen Benwell is a well-known Melbourne based ceramic artist who combines simplicity of technique with stunning originality.
Born in 1953 he studied at the Victorian College of the Arts and then taught with the Council of Adult Education and the Preston Institute of Technology.
During the 1970's his wheel thrown earth -brown bowls and teapots conformed to the prevailing "truth to materials" ethic. By the end of that decade cobalt blue had become his preferred colour and his vessel shapes were formed with flaring brightly coloured rims.
The year 1983 was spent travelling in the USA and Mexico where he studied Pueblo Indian and pre-Columbian pottery. For the next two years he lived in Paris as resident at the Cite Internationale des Artes.
Returning to Australia he rejected the prevailing Japanese influence and developed a more eclectic and individual practice. Benwell has said "I dream my pots"!
He builds from slabs and coils, sometimes even glueing parts together after firing. He treats his ceramics as canvases on which he paints with clear colours and draws with fine lines using elements of primitive, classical and contemporary design. He works in series often working first on paper and then developing the ideas into ceramic forms.
Chris Sanders writes "Benwell's is an art of various moods, often playful, sometimes serious, yet never ponderous. He courageously avoids being safe".
The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery has four of Stephen Benwell's works in it's collection; a sketchily painted grey earthenware vase,[1987],a porcelain bowl painted with underglaze stains and oxides,[1982] a stoneware, scalloped-edged bowl with underglaze painting,[1991] and a small sculptured form from his "Castles and Shrines" series.[1993]
He has had work exhibited in all Australian capital cities as well as Paris, Faenza, Tokyo and Zurich.
Margaret Linton, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

image: Margaret Linton with a Stephen Benwell's Large Vase, 2006, from the Secret History of Blue and White touring exhibition.