Pippin Drysdale

Pippin Drysdale (born 18 May 1943) is an Australian ceramic artist and art teacher. She is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the Australian landscape in the field of ceramics. Her works are known for their intensity of colour and linear markings that interpret the artist's relationship with the Australian landscape. She was recognized as one of Western Australia’s State Living Treasures in 2015.

Biography Drysdale was born in SydneyMelbourne in 1943 into a wealthy family, and grew up in Perth from the age of three. Her father, John Hastings "Bunny" Carew-Reid, was a successful businessman and real estate developer. As a teenager she had art lessons from William Boissevain. At school, she excelled at art, but struggled with other subjects due to an undiagnosed vision problem that, although eventually discovered and corrected at age 12, set her on a rebellious course during her formative years. She failed her Junior Certificate at Methodist Ladies' College, Perth. After leaving school, she attended a business college, from which she was expelled, and then a technical college, where she failed all subjects. She then worked for a short stint at her father's company as a typist, then as a secretary in Canberra, then worked odd jobs in England for a year, and traveled throughout Europe. Returning to Australia in the early 1960s, she moved to Melbourne, married Christopher Drysdale in 1967 (divorced in 1972), and had a son, Jason. In Melbourne she began selling art (Mexican paper flowers sold as "Pip’s Flowers"). She is stimulated by the colours and textures of landscape, putting her emotional interpretations into her work.

Early career Drysdale went from an initial period of throwing bowls to making slab plates that she used as canvases for expressionistic drawing with coloured slips, glazes, and resists. She was also influenced by indigenous painting (she owns works by indigenous artists Queenie McKenzie and Kitty Kantilla) and painter Fred Williams.

Drysdale finds constant renewal of self in the creative process, dating back to her earliest contact with clay:

Studio Drysdale's studio for the last 30 years has been her home in the port of Fremantle, a worker's cottage, now heavily renovated, bought for her by her father. Her pottery is thrown by Warrick Palmateer, a fellow Curtin graduate. She has a studio team of helpers to do the glaze mixing, colour testing, firing, bisque-ware sanding, internet work and shipping of work. The porcelain clay is pugged multiple times, wrapped to "sweat" for four weeks, then repugged before use.

Collections Drysdale's works are found in many private collections. She is represented in Australia by Sabbia Gallery. The 12th Duke of Devonshire, Peregrine Cavendish, has a large collection (over 100) of Drysdale's works.

Her work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Powerhouse Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, National Museum of Scotland, Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Tomsk State Gallery and Museum, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, as well as in the Victoria and Albert Museum ceramic collection, London.

Honours Western Australia’s State Living Treasures in 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award — Artsource Australia

Gallery Early work