Alan Wallwork British, 1931-2019

Alan Wallwork was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, in 1931. He studied pottery at Newlands Park Teachers’ Training College. After that, he studied pottery at Goldsmith's College on a one-year course under Kenneth Clark and Gordon Baldwin, whose attitudes influenced him heavily, and where he gained superb technical and design knowledge.

On leaving Goldsmith’s, he spent some time teaching at local schools, and in 1958 he opened his first studio and gallery in Forest Hill, South London. The gallery, named 'The Alan Gallery', exhibited works by Lucie Rie and Kenneth Clark, amongst others. He continued to experiment with tin-glazing, brush and sgraffito decoration, and rubbed-on oxides. Textures were created by incising, rouletting and stamping, often inlaid with white slip.

Wallwork soon outgrew the Forest Hill premises, and moved to much larger premises in Greenwich. Work produced here sold well, and Wallwork’s designs were taken by the Design Centre, Heal’s department store, and the Craft Potters Association (CPA), of which he was elected a council member.

Wallwork's association with Heal’s led to his work being exhibited in Copenhagen, and a very large order for tiles from an advertising agency led to a move to new premises. He bought a building previously used as a chapel in Marnhull, Dorset, and for a while, he commuted between the two addresses. However, before long he decided to stay permanently in Dorset.  Heal’s and the CPA remained retail outlets, along with the showrooms of Briglin Pottery, which Wallwork occupied for many years, working on tiles, hand-built, slabbed, coiled and altered pots and sculptural pieces in reduced stoneware.

Following illness in the late 1990s Wallwork’s work rate decreased and in 2004 he opened a workshop in France where he continued to pot. Alan Wallwork sadly passed away in November 2019.