The Pottery

cream sushi set sm

flower frogs sm

showroom front

Showroom front.

landscape plate sm

square green serving dish with handles sm

blue and white mixing bowl sm

greencrystalgoblemready

Green crystal goblets.

blue teapot with cane sm

Sandstone teapot sm

cereal soup bowls white sm

bluemilkbagjugready

Milk bag pitcher.

long green platter with dish sm

blue and purple serving bow sml

blue teapot sm

bluecrystalgobletready

Blue Crystal goblets!

small blue serving dish with dips sm

How did I get here?

I have always loved art, and started working with ink on paper way back in the 1980’s. It helped me work through the bust up of a marriage, raising kids, and proved to be a great emotional/spiritual outlet. It also led to shows at galleries in Toronto, York University, and Northumberland County. In the late 1990’s I discovered clay in a very round-about way — through meditation.

My meditation teacher at the time (at the Dharma Centre of Canada) suggested I make 100 vases, and even though he didn’t specifically say I make them out of clay, I stumbled upon a pottery teacher — and I was hooked from the first lesson! The 100 vases turned into 100 mugs, and then the exercise went onto 100 bowls, 100 plates, 100 teapots, and so on. I think I’ve probably made about 5000 teapots by now! Functional work in clay surpassed my work on paper for a while, but I continued to make paintings, especially when there was something I needed to work out.

All of my work is ‘one of a kind’ in its true sense, and reflects all of the phases I’ve been through — in clay, on paper, and in life.

A history of my work and some of my favorite pieces can be seen in the Gallery on this site, and I will be adding a page for my work on paper in the near future.

The Studio itself is now in my basement. It has been through many configurations but now that I am not teaching on a regular basis, it is just set up for my use. I have no one else to blame when I can’t find tools! My space for working on paper has been greatly improved, and at some point I may invite some of you to join me there for some rudimentary exercises with ink/watercolour, but right now it’s just a joy be working in natural light and leaving messes everywhere. The Showroom has a variety of my work available, by appointment right now. I have committed to lots of shows this year, so I am going to be pretty busy working!

I am hoping to add some special events this summer. especially for previous students, and will be posting them on the website, on FB, etc.

Hope to see you all soon!

Susan McDonald

PS. Love is lovelier the second time around. Second husband is a keeper!