Arthur and Carol Rosser were a husband and wife duo who practised in North Queensland (Townsville and Mackay), quietly dedicating their careers to the production of wood fired pottery. Masters of their medium, they are recognised as part of a dispersed community of artists that contributed to the revival of stoneware pottery in Australia, a movement that slowly gained momentum from the late 1950s.
Over forty years the Rossers’ created a prolific body of work. Often self-sourcing and mixing clay bodies from local deposits, they built and experimented with their own kilns suitable for salt and later, long wood firings. This included an Anagama kiln (from Japanese for cave kiln) and their hybrid design Oztrain kiln. Over their careers they mastered salt glazing and developed their own natural ash glazes. Earthy red, brown and subtle green dribbles, minimal decoration, and robust, functional forms became the signature aesthetic of their oeuvre. In their later years they pursued pure wood firing—exploiting the natural, random effects of ash in the kiln to allow for unexpected decorative effects.

This flat-sided bottle was created during later part of Carol Rosser's career, at a time when she was focusing on pure wood firing. By this stage Arthur and Carol exclusively mixed their own glazes, sourced their clay locally and used little applied glaze, leaving decoration to the natural effects that occured in the kiln. This bottle was created during a long-wood firing (143 hours) in the Rosser's self built Anagama kiln. Visible decorative effects from firing include the contrast between deep reds of the shell imprint wad marks and the softer green-white colour from the natural ash glaze. The flat-sided bottle was a preferred form that Carol Rosser recreated many times over 20 years of making. Examples of salt fired flat-sided bottles are also held in the Mackay Regional Council Art Collection.

Artspace Mackay 2023