“We benefited from living with [Bernard] Leach, because suddenly all of his friends became our acquaintances.” Quote by Warren MacKenzie
“Bernard [Leach] knew Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Terry Frost, Peter Lanyon, Johnny Wells. I can think of a number of people that we met there just because we were living with Bernard. Some of them became our friends, particularly the younger artists, but we were privileged to at least meet and talk with the older artists also. And they would come to dinner, and we would simply be included in the conversation, which was quite fascinating.” PeopleThinkingWellsI CanArtistNumbersMetsConversationDinnerFascinatingPeterPrivilegedFrostBarbaraNicholson Author:Warren MacKenzie
“There were a lot of artists in St. Ives. In fact, since the time of Whistler, St. Ives has been noted as an artist colony.” Has BeensFactsArtistColonyWhistler Author:Warren MacKenzie
“[St. Ives] is a wonderful place to live. It's a small fishing town and one can live there inexpensively. There's a sympathetic population of other artists, where you can exchange ideas, and it's quite rich in artistic thought.” IdeasArtistRichWonderfulTownsPopulationArtisticFishingSympatheticPlaces To LiveWonderful Places Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Friends of Bernard's [Leach] came to visit, and when we went to London, we were given introductions to people like Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Richard Batram. All these people were, let's say, made available to us by a friendship with Leach. In addition there was a potter's group - what was it called? I think it was called the Cornish Potters Society, but I'm not sure of that. Anyway, they had meetings and we would go with Leach to these meetings and meet other potters, and they would have programs where they would discuss pottery and people would interchange ideas.” PeopleThinkingMadeIdeasGivenGroupsProgramMeetingsAvailableLondonNot SureIntroductionPottersPotteryInterchange Author:Warren MacKenzie
“We got a great benefit from our contact with those people [Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Richard Batram] and met people that we wouldn't have probably met if we had simply worked at the pottery.” PeopleIfsMetsBenefitsContactPottery Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I don't know, it's very difficult if you're in a strange country to just barge in and say, "Hello, I'm Warren MacKenzie, and aren't you happy to have me as a guest," you know? But artists did accept us and we remained friends for many, many years, many of them as long as they lived; like Lucie Rie and Hans Coper were very good friends, and it was wonderful.” IfsKnowsYearsLongCountryArtistDifficultAcceptingWonderfulStrangeVery GoodGuestsGood FriendHelloVery Good FriendsBarges Author:Warren MacKenzie
“If you take Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, their work didn't even relate to what we were trying to do, because they were moving in a different direction, both of them coming out of Europe and the Viennese school of design, which Lucie came from, and Coper learning from Lucie and then springing off on his own when she encouraged him to explore more widely. So he created his own work instead of just working for her and doing her forms. So that was a wonderful thing.” IfsTryingDifferentSchoolMovingFormWonderfulDesignEuropeRelateComing OutWonderful ThingsMoving InDifferent Directions Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I've been influenced by someone or [English artists] work. I mentioned Hans Coper as an example.” ArtistExample Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Some years ago I was working on some forms which were vase forms with a fairly narrow base, and it was after [Hans] Coper had died that I saw an exhibition of his, a catalogue from an exhibition, and he was showing some forms which were made by cutting and joining a lot of different parts together to create what he called a spade form, which you can imagine looks a little bit like a shovel upside down.” YearsLooksLittlesMadeDifferentTogetherFormBitsSawsCuttingImagineLittle BitYears AgoDiedJoiningUpside DownExhibitionsShovelsSpadesVasesCatalogues Author:Warren MacKenzie
“These narrow-footed forms I was making, I thought, gosh, I could push those further, not to construct them the way [Hans] Coper did but to work in my own manner but push it more toward that form. And I learned to do that and enjoyed it for a number of years.” WayYearsFormMy OwnNumbersEnjoyedConstructs Author:Warren MacKenzie