I’ve been really enjoying digging into the the lives and work of artists as I create my Amplify feature each week. I feel like I’m getting to know these artists on a much deeper level, even if they are already good friends of mine.
For this week’s Amplify, I am featuring potter Shawn Grove. I’ve known Shawn for more than twenty years, and Shawn and I first met when we taught art at the same elementary school when I first moved to Virginia. I’ve always loved Shawn’s pottery, and I’m glad to share it with you.
Shawn grew up near Philadelphia in Malvern, PA, and first connected with ceramics at Longwood University in Farmville, VA. Though he taught art in public schools full time, Shawn also found time to create his pottery, and when he moved to Lucketts, VA, he began creating his vision for his pottery studio and eventually built his own wood fired kiln. Shawn specializes in functional pieces for the home and garden, and he creates mugs, bowls, pitchers, bottles, planters, and much more.
The wood fire process is a very highly involved process since wood has to be constantly fed into the kiln during the firing, and it takes an entire weekend to bring the kiln up to the correct temperature. Shawn fires his kiln twice a year — once in the spring and once in the fall, and he spends the rest of the year throwing and creating his pots to make certain that he has enough pieces to fill the kiln.
Wood firing is a somewhat unpredictable process, and the placement of the pots within the kiln and the interaction of ash, salts, and minerals in the clay leads to unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. You won’t see bright colors in wood fired pottery, but you’ll see speckled browns, streaks of dark umbers, and splotches of reddish siennas — the colors of the earth. Often pieces come out in an unexpected ways, and if it’s something Shawn likes, he tries to figure out how it came to be so that he can set up those conditions again. With experience, the unpredictable becomes more predictable, but the process of wood firing still has plenty of surprises in store. This is what draws Shawn to this process over the more predictable firing of an electric or gas kiln.
Like so many artists, Shawn shares his pottery through exhibitions at galleries and other venues in the Northern Virginia area and at events like the annual Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival and the Western Loudoun Artist Studio Tour. He also sells his work from his studio gallery in Lucketts during annual sales events. Shawn also teaches wheel throwing classes at the Round Hill Arts Center in Round Hill, VA, and teaches a variety of classes as an art teacher at Woodgrove High School in Purcellville, VA.
Shawn’s pottery has a simplicity and an elegance of form, but a richness and a texture from the firing that combine in his wonderful pieces.
I hope that you enjoy Shawn’s work as much as I do.
Please check out Shawn’s website and social media to see more of his work!
Website: www.shawngrovepottery.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008181307996
Instagram: www.instagram.com/woodfiredpottery