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Jonathan Holmes
Les Blakebrough: Ceramics
Craftsman House 2005
240mm x 240mm, soft cover, 144pp
$49.95 rrp

In a career spanning five decades, Les Blakebrough has become on of Australia's most acclaimed and influential ceramic artists.  His body of work has ranged from earthy functional wares to more recent, delicate forms.  The ethereal beauty of these later works emphasises the translucency and fragility of the Southern Ice Porcelain he trademarked and spent more than five years developing.  His passionate research and development of the techniques and materials of ceramics have led him on journeys of discovery from studying with master potters in Japan in the 1960s to working with leading manufacturers of industrial ceramics in Scandinavia in the 1990s.

Blakebrough has made an extraordinary contribution to visual art, craft and design in Australia as a practitioner, teacher, mentor and visionary advocate.  He has been Director of the Sturt Pottery and Sturt Workshops, a founding member of the Crafts Board of the Australia Council, Head of Ceramics at the Tasmanian School of Art and a Principle Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania.  He has been awarded numerous awards and commissions and his works are held in all major public collections in Australia and in many others around the world.

Published to coincide with Les Blakebrough: Ceramics, the inaugural exhibition in the Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft series, this magnificent monograph pays tribute this acclaimed and influential ceramic artist. The volume is generously illustrated, with a comprehensive account of Blakebrough's work and career.  Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft series is an initiative of Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design.  Each year, through the combination of a nationally touring exhibition and a major monograph publication, the Living Treasures series aims to celebrate the achievements of Australia's most iconic crafts practitioners.

Associate Professor Jonathan Holmes teaches art and design history and theory at the Tasmanian School of Art and is also Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Tasmania.  He has written extensively on the contemporary visual arts and crafts in Australia and is the author of many publications.