GILLIAN HIGHLAND BA

1969 BA Hons 3d Ceramics 2.1

1969 – 1970 taught pottery at Hengrove Comp School aged 11 – 16 years

Also that year I worked with people in a hospital who had suffered mental breakdown.

1970 – 1972 taught part-time students at Folkestone Art School on Foundation. Concurrently I taught part-time at Shorncliffe Junior infantryman’s Battalion, Folkestone in the education wing for 2 years.

1972 – 1973 taught adult education students at the New Metropole Adult Education Centre, Folkestone.

1973 – 1974 assistant arts director at New Metropole Gallery.

1974 – 1984 established and ran the Canterbury Adult Education Centre pottery department.

1978 – 1980 Co-ordinated various basic courses for teachers at teachers centres in Broadstairs Ramsgate and Margate as holiday courses for teachers who needed basic skills to enable them to teach in primary education.

1970 – 1983 I have shown work at various galleries in Medway, East Sussex and Kent, mainly mixed exhibitions. I also undertook commissioned work for various people, including the late Lord Kenneth Clark and I have work in the Kent County Council Art Collection.

1983 changed direction and spent 27 years running a business unrelated to the Arts with my husband but attended Adult Education life drawing classes.

2006 – Present Rebuilt my workshop and spent more time building a body of work to sell and undertake commissioned work.  I now regularly exhibit at Craft in Focus fairs and local craft shows as well as open studios and I am always happy to meet visitors at my work shop by appointment.

My Work

I use various clays to produce slab pots and functional thrown tableware, which is usually reduction-fired stoneware. Decoration, sometimes inlaid, is influenced by the landscape in which I live and the balance of life. Recently I have been investigating the technique of Raku