Robin
Hopper passed away in
2017. He was an internationally known potter, teacher, author, garden
designer and arts activist. He taught throughout Canada, and in England,
U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, Japan and Israel. His
ceramic work is in public, corporate and private collections
throughout the world.
Robin was born in England in 1939, and trained
there at Croydon College of Art (1956-1961). He developed
studios in both England and Canada, where he immigrated in 1968.
After two years teaching in Toronto at Central Technical School, he
set up and headed the Ceramics and Glass Department at Georgian
College, Barrie, Ontario. In 1972 he resigned from teaching to
devote full energies to his work in ceramics. 1977 included
relocation to Victoria, B.C., Canada, and becoming the first
recipient of the Bronfman
Award,
Canada’s most prestigious annual award in the crafts. Just before
his passing he received the Order of
Canada, a wonderful
recognition of all that he had done for the arts. He was an honourary
member of NCECA.
As well as being a renowned ceramist he is the author
of “The
Ceramic Spectrum”, “Functional
Pottery”,
“Staying
Alive”,
“Making
Marks”, a revised
edition of Daniel Rhodes' "Clay
and Glazes for the Potter", and his autobiography,
“Robin
Hopper Ceramics”. For more information on his
books please go to the Books and Videos page. He wrote many articles in
major international ceramics publications. He was the Founding
President Emeritus of the Metchosin International Summer School of the
Arts.
In 1993 he developed a
series of six educational videos on ceramic decoration processes
titled “Making
Marks”, based
on research material for a book of the same title. In 1994, a
second series of five videos on design and aesthetics was produced,
titled “Form
and Function”,
and based on his second book “Functional
Pottery”.
Since then he made “Beginning
to Throw on the Potter's Wheel”, and “Advanced
Throwing”. The videos are now
downloadable files and are commercially available through
PotteryVideos.com
Robin’s work in ceramics over a 55 year period included a great deal of
ceramic historical and technical research, and an ongoing studio
involvement with one-of-a-kind art works, primarily in porcelain
and his last area of interest was with glaze
paintings.
Next to ceramics, good living and travel, his other life-long
passion was gardening, particularly the research into and love of
Oriental gardens. His “Anglojapanadian
Garden" at
’Chosin Pottery has been featured in books, several
television programs and many magazines.
Robin wrote an eBook called “A Potter’s
Garden - An Artist’s Approach to Creative
Garden-Making”. This book illustrates his award-winning
garden and the influences and inspiration that it has had on his
pottery. It is the story of a very personal garden and its
development through the eyes and mind of an artist. It is about
creative garden-making. It is $9.99 US and can be downloaded
at Smashwords. Note: for optimal image-viewing, the
book is best viewed as a PDF.