Art communicates by combining process, materials and concept, this fusion is particularly poignant in the world of ceramics.  Peter Beard has explored this area through his ceramics for many years and his success is verified by international reputation.
 

Making is central to the crafts and arguably it defines the nature of the man, the toolmaker.  The earliest ceramics took the form of idols offered to the gods on a fire, thus proving that the act of making has spiritual and aesthetic considerations equalling, or perhaps exceeding, its utilitarian ones.
 

Peter Beard is primarily interested in aesthetic considerations; his experience transcends the skill needed to create an object.  It is his ability to define and create a beautiful object that singles him out.  Although Peter is a master of the processes he employs, (usually slab building or throwing) he is not a slave to technique.  He draws together slabs of clay to form an elegantly twisting line along the edge of a pot, yet he is brave enough to leave the rim pinched and fresh, acknowledging the act of forming the clay.
 

If a process is to speak of anything then it must speak unabashedly of itself; the hand forming the clay.  Every pot Peter makes bears testimony to this.
 

Ceramics is one of the few areas where art meets science.  The selection of materials is often based on empirical as much as on personal preference.  It is when the research and preferences meet that a true sense of the maker’s intentions become clear.  This is especially evident in Peter’s work with glazes.
 

He is a man who takes risks, glazes bubbling here and running there.  These risks have their dividend; the run of the glaze inform us directly of the subtle curves of a form, as gravity takes an opportune moment to intervene before being frozen as the kiln cools.  The blisters represent a meeting of the two opposing glazes along a boundary defined by the makers hand; a pattern being too crude a word to articulate the juxtaposition of these two volcanic forces.  It is Peter's combination of research, risk taking and self-criticism that enables him to keep up his fearless standard, right to the edge of what even he thinks possible.
 

Peter is aware of historical ceramic precedents, the ancient art of Egypt is a touchstone for a lot of his recent work.  He is no imitator though, and his work is a personal reinvention of the past, at once contemporary yet imbued with an archaic authority.
 

This reinvention is born of Peter’s approach to his work.  He sees himself as firstly a maker.  It is by making that ideas reveal themselves and are refined.  The act of making distils Peter’s experiences, be they a favourite landscape or a pre-Raphelite painting.  The results bear no direct lineage to any one precedent, but they are a pretty potent brew.