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 platter was created during later part of Arthur Rosser's career, at a time when he was focusing on long wood firing. By this stage Arthur and Carol exclusively mixed their own glazes, sourced their clay locally and used minimal applied glaze, leaving decoration to the natural effects that occured in the kiln. This platter was hand built by the artist using a slab roller. It was fired during a long-wood firing (82 hours) in the Anagama kiln. Visible decorative effects include the contrast between the shell imprints which were functional decoration (shells were used by Arthur to seperate stacked items in the kiln). The nautral ash dribbles also indicate stacking and exposure in the kiln.

Artspace Mackay 2023