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 vase was created after the artists had built their first salt kiln at their Dalrymple Heights property. By this stage Arthur and Carol had begun to use their own mixed glazes and dig their own cla- both sourced from their local surrounds. The long necked vase was a shape Arthur Rosser favoured throughout his pottery career. This work is characterised by applied green ash glaze dribbles, thick salt stippling at the neck, and a rimmed decoration around the body of the vase.

Artspace Mackay 2023