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 were part of the 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 Carol Rosser's career, at a time when she was focusing on long wood firing. This platter was hand built by the artist and was fired during a long-wood firing in the Anagama kiln. It achives an expert contrast-between the shell imprint wad marks-a form of functional decoration (shells were used to seperate stacked items in the kiln), and the natural ash glaze that lightly coloured the rest of the platter. The 'comet tails' around these wad marks, flashing achived via oxygen reduction in the kiln and very subtle colour from nautral ash indicate the artist's successful manipulation of the kiln atmosphere and mastery over long wood firing techniques.

Artspace Mackay 2023