Harold Hughan, called “Buzz” by his close friends, was born in Mildura.
Hughan’s work was domestic in scale as he sought to create an Australian idiom, albeit influenced by the natural glazes and hand thrown aesthetic of Chinese and Japanese ceramics.
Harold had always been interested in crafts, especially woodwork and weaving. In 1940 his wife Lily and son Robert introduced him to pottery where the influence of Bernard Leach’s studio approach 'A Potter’s Book’ is evident. Harold was self taught as a thrower, with reference to 'The Potter’s Craft’ by C. F. Binns.
Son, Robert Hughan, was a ceramic technologist with the CSIRO, they collaborated on developing stoneware bodies and glazes. This meant Harold could create what he had envisioned as a ceramic artist.
1941 – Designed and constructed a wheel from the crankshaft of a motorcar engine, the first Leach style potter’s wheel in Australia.
Built a kiln for a pottery studio based at his Glen Iris home.
Clays – stoneware, porcellaneous stoneware, earthenware.
Surface decoration – Glazes: celadon, tenmoku, oatmeal, gold metallic, slip decoration. Incised, brushwork.
1907 – c 1910 – Trained as a Mechanical Engineer, then an Electrical Engineer.
1915 – Enlisted in the AIF, served on the Western Front.
Harold was honoured with retrospective exhibitions in 1969 and 1983 at the National Gallery of Victoria. Both curated by Kenneth Hood.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2019
- Last updated:
- 2021
