Waistel Cooper (19 April 1921 – 15 January 2003) was a British

studio potter Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves.Emmanuel Cooper, ...

Biography

Cooper was born in

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Subdivisions of Scotland, council area and the historic Shires of Scotlan ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and initially studied painting at Hospitalfield School of Art during 1937 and 1938. At Hospitalfield, Waistel was taught by James Cowie who used Waistel as a model for his masterpiece 'An Outdoor School of Painting', in collection of the Tate Gallery. Waistel's fellow students at Hospitalfield included

Robert MacBryde Robert MacBryde (5 December 1913 – 6 May 1966) was a Scotland, Scottish still-life and figure painter and a theatre Scenic design, set designer. Early life and career MacBryde was born in Maybole, Ayrshire, to John MacBryde, a cement laboure ...

Robert Colquhoun Robert Colquhoun (20 December 1914 – 20 September 1962) was a Scotland, Scottish Painting, painter, printmaker and theatre Scenic design, set designer. Colquhoun was born in Kilmarnock and was educated at Kilmarnock Academy. He won a s ...

, Patrick Hennessey and Robert Henderson Blythe. Subsequently, Waistel won a painting scholarship to

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, though these studies were interrupted by the war. Cooper first flirted with pottery on a portrait commission in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, and returned to England to set up a pottery studio in the village of

Porlock Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, west of Minehead. At the 2011 census, the village had a population of 1,440. In 2017, Porlock had the highest percentage of elderly population in Britain, with over 40% being of pensionable ag ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in 1950. Henry Rothschild (1913–2009) gave Cooper a one-man show at his craft gallery Primavera in August 1955. Often compared to contemporary London based studio potters Coper and

Lucie Rie Dame Lucie Rie, (16 March 1902 – 1 April 1995) () was an Austrian-born British studio potter. Life Early years and education Lucie Gomperz was born in Vienna, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary, the youngest child of Benjamin Gomperz, a Jewis ...

, Cooper's rural lifestyle meant that he was largely isolated from London trends. Cooper stated, "I met

and Hans Coper in the fifties and felt a very strong kinship with the direction their work was taking, in so far as it was concerned, as was mine, with sculptural form and texture, and was light years away from the Japonaiserie of the Bernard Leach school of pottery." Waistel Cooper 'Teardrop Vase'

In 1957 Cooper moved to the nearby hamlet of Culbone, where he re-established his pottery. He remained at Culbone for 25 years, before moving to

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

in 1982. File:Waistel Cooper teardrop stoneware vase.jpg, Waistel Cooper - Teardrop Vase, stoneware, circa 1960 File:Waistel Cooper clam-shell sgraffito stoneware vase.jpg, Waistel Cooper - Clamshell Vase, stoneware, circa 1950s..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Waistel 1921 births 2003 deaths British potters