Niek Hoogland

Artist Statement

I am a potter,

Working with red earthenware clay

Like it has been dug in the region for the last

Three-thousand years

I make pots, tiles and sculptures with that clay.

The potters wheel is my tool…

I like to work as straightforward as the clay allows me.

The softness of the clay, the action of the throwing,

Leaving my mark,

Making it mine.

I make slipware,

Creamy white slip covering the terracotta,

Sgraffito revealing it again.

Brushstrokes and trailed lines

Building up a story

Bring trained as a slipware potter,

Living in a town with a history of ceramics,

I can see my work in a historic perspective.

Without feeling tied to that tradition I can draw from it,

Borrow from it and adapt things.

The directness,

Its humour, its low profile.

Making slipware-ceramics has made me a village potter.

Being a part of a community.

A place in the cycle.