Artist Statement

Dennis has been working with clay for over three decades, more than half his life – a landmark that comes with a certain amount of reflection.

His primary goal is always for the work to have integrity and enough presence to make it worth taking up space in this cluttered world.  Dennis’s work requires many different firing schedules. He uses clay and glazes as a vehicle for his ideas, much like a painter uses a canvas.

He mostly works with Lumina porcelain and Southern Ice because of the inherent qualities, it enables him to throw larger and finer works, qualities important for the visual and emotional impact of his elegant forms.

The surfaces of his crystalline glazes are often reminiscent of constellations, delicate coral formations and oceans.  The elusive quality of a crystal glaze can transform the vessel. The metamorphic or transformative qualities in his work, are about growth, change, and enlightenment, this reinforces the power of life and emphasises how precious it is.

During the last 15+ years he has developed a vast body of unique glazes which complement his mostly delicate and refined forms. He is a vocal advocate for craftsmanship and innovation. Dennis believes that an artist’s work is deeply rooted in the psychology of the maker. In his new forms he has found his questioning spirit and one that escapes and refuses to be tied down to a single symbolic meaning. The desire to push on in an attempt to get it ‘right’ seems to reverberate around his studio.

Dennis Forshaw comes from a construction engineering background which holds him in good stead when it comes to building kilns, creating his Ceramic forms and thousands of hours testing his own glazes.

His relevant ceramic qualifications include a three year Diploma in Visual Arts specialising in Ceramics. He held the position of Head of Ceramics Department, Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE from 1998-2004, he completed a teaching qualification during 1999. When he is not producing his own work, Dennis is  teaching wheel throwing and glaze technology at Doonan Studios Art Space, on the Sunshine Coast.