Duncan Ross creates unique ceramics using the ancient Greek techniques of terra-sigillata slips and smoke firing, combined with a contemporary use of image and pattern. The work is thrown and burnished using many layers of a fine terra-sigillata slip with resist and inlay decoration. Colours are achieved by smoke firing, and the decoration is developed from many sources including textiles and geometric motifs.
'I began working with sigillata to develop a rich surface with a combination of form and pattern that would be integral to the clay. Starting with line and dense burnishing, I experimented to obtain a feeling of depth, allowing the smoke process to play its essential and unpredictable part. The challenge lies in the relationship of form and pattern. Balance, rhythm and proportion are all important.'
Duncan's vessel forms are represented in the collections of the Victoria and Albert and Fitzwilliam Museums in the UK, the American Museum of Ceramic Art in California, the Munich Museum of Applied Arts in Germany and the Musee Bernard Palissy, Saint Avit, France, among many others.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
La Petite Galerie (Galerie du Don) Aurillac, France
Galerie Terra, Keramiek, Delft, Holland
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Woodbury Gallery, Devon
New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, Surrey
Contemporary Ceramics London
Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool
Galerie Pierre, Paris
Galerie Argile, Brussels
Sheila Nussbaum Gallery, N.J. US
WDO Gallery, Charlotte, N. Carolina, US
The Hart Gallery, London
Collection Gallery' Ledbury
The Candover Gallery,Alresford,Hants
Galerie L, Hamburg, Germany
Oxford Gallery, Oxford