Nola Barron

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1931

Candlestick

  • Stoneware
  • Purchased 1971
  • 302 x 111mm
  • 71/12

Nola Barron has been a prominent member of New Zealand’s studio pottery movement since the 1960s. Barron studied under Yvonne Rust and has a long association with the Canterbury Society of Potters. She regularly exhibited her pottery with The Group and once stated: Ceramics is a fascinating field which confers great freedom to experiment, although your briefly held theories may be confounded with the next firing. Just occasionally, with a little luck, you are rewarded with a piece that pleases you, but don’t for a minute think you have mastered it.

(1969 Comeback Special 27 August – 6 November 2016)

Exhibition History

earlier labels about this work
  • Although Nola Barron has been interested in conventional pottery making, since 1967 most of her work has been sculptural in style. Many of her pieces look as if they have been carved in stone, even though she might have thrown them on a wheel, as she has done with Candlestick. Barron has said, ‘Ceramics is a fascinating field which confers great freedom to experiment, although your briefly held theories may be confounded with the next firing. Just occasionally, with a little luck, you are rewarded with a piece that pleases you, but don't for a minute think you have mastered it'. Born in Christchurch, Barron began potting in 1963. She studied at both the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts and the Technical Institute of Printmaking. She also studied painting and pottery under the renowned New Zealand potter and artist Yvonne Rust (1922-2002). Barron was a member of the Canterbury Society of Potters and exhibited regularly with The Group. She was Director of the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery from 1977 to 1986. (Essential forms, 2003)