Making a living as a studio potter requires discipline and a strong work ethic. In addition to keeping the gallery shelves full, there are constant commissions and deadlines. To maintain excitement, even passion, over a long career, I am constantly thinking ahead to new work, experimenting with various ideas and techniques. The result has been a steady evolution in my work, a refined and nuanced intensity in surface decoration on wheel thrown porcelain shapes. I have consistently been inspired by textiles and fiber techniques- Persian carpets, Fair Isle knitting patterns, batiks from around the world. Throughout the majority of my career, I have used wax resist and underglaze colours on high fired porcelain fired in electric kilns to apply layered patterns to my forms.

After receiving a BA in Visual Arts and a BA in education, I have been working as a studio potter for 35 years. With the exception of occasionally giving workshops and classes, my partner/husband and I have made our living as working potters. Since 2001, we have been running a gallery attached to our studio in Wakefield Quebec where we sell our pottery and the work of many visual artists from both Ottawa Ontario and our region of Quebec. I have also been a participant in 260 Fingers in Ottawa since it first began.

May 17 – July 3, 2016:

see more of Maureen’s pottery at General Fine Craft in an exhibition with jewellery maker Barbara Mullally