PETER BEARD studied industrial design and furniture design at Ravensbourne College of Art in London from 1970-1973 and whilst at college he maintained an interest in ceramics.
In 1973 Peter helped set up a pottery in Scotland making thrown domestic stoneware and developed an interest in one-off pots and sculptural pieces. He opened his first studio in Kent in 1975 and worked there, making only one-off pieces, until moving to Leamington Spa in 1995.
Peter Beard's current work is a mixture of thrown and hand-built pieces in oxidised stoneware fired to 1290°C, using combinations of shiny, matt and semi-matt glazes, built up in layers prior to firing to create textural surfaces in a range of pastel shades and some stronger colours. Wax resist is used extensively to create patterns and to isolate the glaze layers during application.
Since 1975, Beard has took part in over 100 group exhibitions and 45 one man, his work is widely collected and admired