John Reeve

John Reeve (30 November 1929 – 29 June 2012) was a Canadian studio potter. Reeve apprenticed with Bernard Leach at his pottery in St Ives from 1958 until 1961. Other potters followed from Vancouver, beginning with Glenn Lewis, who he encouraged to apply. Apprentices made standard ware under supervision and eventually more experimental pieces in their spare time, reviewed in criticism sessions. In 1960, Reeve married his second wife, Donna Balma, later an artist known for visionary paintings based in British Columbia.

Early and mid-career Longlands, at Hennock in Dartmoor, (building with tall chimneys).

He returned to Canada in 1961, teaching at University of British Columbia. Reeve gained the attention of architect Ron Thom, who commissioned him to make ceramics as part of the plan for Massey College. At around this time, he also met Warren Mackenzie and they became lifelong friends. Reeve would often work alongside him in his pottery in Stillwater, Minnesota. Mackenzie has said of Reeve, "We shared the idea that pots should be made easily and quickly; they should not be elaborate things. We didn't have to explain ourselves to one another. He was my best double." In 1963, he returned to the Leach pottery to make large standard ware pieces, and continued teaching, at Farnham College of Art in Surrey. In 1966, with the aid of a Canada Council Senior Arts Fellowship, he bought a farm named Longlands on Dartmoor, with Glenn Lewis and Warren Mackenzie. They established the Longlands pottery which continued to operate until 1972.

He was Studio Manager at the Bernard Leach pottery from 1973 to 1974.

Later career and philosophy

alt=Chrome Oxide, an important (and potentially dangerous) element in the recipe for Reeve Green. From 1974, he worked and travelled across Canada and the United States. He became well known as a teacher through University courses, his workshops and as a visiting artist. He self-published two influential books on ceramic glazes: Book One: A Potter's Way to Understand Glazes and The Potter's Raw Materials, Some of their Characteristics and Compositions. Reeve's porcelain and Reeve's Green are well known to studio potters.

In 1992, he was a founding member of Santa Fe Clay, a pottery studio supplying ceramics to retail, which also runs a gallery and workshop program. He married his third wife Phylis Blair in 1996. In his later years, he continued to teach workshops at Santa Fe Clay, for example: "Jam-pots, garlic pigs, egg-bakers and other objects of delight". He also had a home studio in Abiquiú. In 2004, his work was part of a well-received major retrospective exhibition of West Coast potters, containing more than 700 pieces, shown at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Reeve contributed to a book of the same title published in 2011 and participated in its launch alongside Glenn Lewis, held at a gallery on Granville Island.

Exhibitions and public collections alt=Vancouver Art Gallery seen from the plaza, with a banner to promote the Modern in the Making exhibition. A non-exhaustive list of exhibitions, and museums which hold his work: 1960s show at Primavera Gallery, London, United Kingdom 1972: Solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. 2004: Thrown: Influences and Intentions of West Coast Potters, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver 2013: Connections: Canadian and British Studio Ceramics, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Ontario 2017: John Reeve: Some Hidden Magic Northern Clay Center, Vancouver

2017: Kindred Spirits, at the Lacoste Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts 2021: Modern in the Making, an exhibition about the development of Modernist design practice in British Columbia, Vancouver Art Gallery. Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada York Museums, York, United Kingdom The City of Bristol's studio pottery collection, United Kingdom

Potteries

Some of the potteries John Reeve owned, or worked at.

Blue Mountain Craft Shop, Orillia, British Columbia, Canada (owner) Aylesford Pottery, Aylesford, United Kingdom Crowan Pottery, Cornwall, United Kingdom Wenford Bridge Pottery, St Breward, United Kingdom Leach Pottery, St Ives, Cornwall, United Kingdom Warren McKenzie's Stillwater Studio, Stillwater, Minnesota Longlands Pottery, Devon, United Kingdom (co-owner) Herman Venema Pottery, Matsqui, British Columbia, Canada Big Creek Pottery, Davenport, California Cold Mountain Pottery, Robert’s Creek, British Columbia (owner) Slug Pottery, Roberts Creek, British Columbia, Canada Tam Irving Pottery, Fisherman's Cove, British Columbia, Canada Lee Creek Pottery, Chase, British Columbia, Canada Old Bridge Street Pottery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Tom Donahue Pottery, Oakview, California Jim Lorio Pottery, Boulder, Colorado Castle Clay, Denver, Colorado Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, New Mexico (co-founder) Martin Peters Dunbar Pottery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Stephen Kilborn Pottery, Taos, New Mexico

Recognition 1961 Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation Grant Canada Council Senior Arts Fellowship

Published works Books 1979: Book One : A Potter's Way to Understand Glazes The Potter's Raw Materials, Some of their Characteristics and Compositions Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries.

Articles 1975: The Potters Wheel. Ceramic Review - No. 33 (May / Jun 1975) 1975: Some Notes on Porcelain. (three part article) Tactile. Canadian Guild of Potters Notes on Porcelain, Part 1: Miracle of Reality, Pottery Quarterly, Vol. 11, No., 43 (1975) Notes on Porcelain, Part 2: The Body, Pottery Quarterly, Vol. 11, No., 44 (1975) 1978: More Notes on Porcelain. Studio Potter, Vol. 6 No. 2 (January 1978)