ZOOM | HOLIDAY 2023

the sunshine coast magazine
AFFINITY
FOR FORM AND
EARTHINESS
TRANSLATES INTO
CERAMICS
JAMES
BENNETT
holiday
L
andscape and ceramic artist James Bennett
has a strong instinct for what works, visually
and practically. For more than 20 years his
outdoor design has transformed spaces, from
meagre city lots to sprawling acreages, giving
his clients delightful, usable outdoor spaces.
James has lived on the Sunshine Coast for
18 years. Approaching his sunny studio, one
sees evidence of his outdoor design choices in the
carefully selected plants, hedges, and espaliered fruit.
He has nurtured a vast rosemary hedge and common
medlar, a member of the rose family. This thick shrub
was once widespread in Europe and the Middle East,
having been cultivated since Roman times. Medlar
fruit has large, showy white blossoms in spring and is
ready to harvest in late fall, when the soft fruit tastes
exquisitely of applesauce. It's not something one sees
in the average front yard.
James has a down-to-earth take on landscape design.
In his view: “Garden design is nothing more than hard
listening to the customer and damn hard work.”
His affinity for form and earthiness translates quite
seamlessly into ceramics. In his pottery, James
produces a wide array of pieces, from precious,
softly rounded dipping bowls to austere vessels.
His sources of inspiration are wide; sometimes it is
geopolitics, sometimes nature. He crafts vases with
earth-inspired decorative features such as thorns
and fungi, alongside sturdy and eminently usable
dishware finished with cottage colours like cobalt
blue and creamy white. You will see fascinating and
intricate objects with shapes one might see on a
diving expedition, of corals, spines, and mollusks. It's
all a little unusual, a feast for the eyes, and somehow
just right.
There is nothing whimsical in James' approach to his
pottery work, either. “Pottery,” he says, “is the same
hard, consistent work with the curated eye to smash
the things that are not (at least) really good.” Dryly,
he likes to quote an old potter: “You have to make 100
cups and throw out 99. Then you do it over again and
again. Soon you might know how to make a cup.”
James' work can be viewed and purchased at Fresh
from the Coast, on Trail Avenue in Sechelt. It’s the
perfect stop for curated giftware by talented local
artists and crafters. How is it that we have such a
wealth of craft and creativity here? Our inspiring
setting? Maybe. But James says, for himself at least,
it's more simple: “This is what happens when you
don't watch TV.” ·
2023 11