Peter Hayes

Peter Hayes (b. 1946) is a British ceramic artist based in Bath whose work is informed by an interest in cultural and historical forms. Born in Birmingham, he first encountered ceramics through archaeological digs in Wales as an art student, where he handled Neolithic, Iron Age and Roman Samian pottery. This early exposure to ancient artifacts shaped his fascination with the forms and surfaces of ceramics from other cultures and times.

Hayes’s work explores the effects of erosion, time and nature on surface, aiming for objects that evolve within their environment rather than compete with it. He often works with low‑temperature raku techniques and incorporates minerals such as iron and copper into his surfaces. Many pieces are subsequently submerged in river or sea water to allow natural processes to develop texture, patina and crack patterns, which he further refines through sanding so that surface changes become integral to the piece’s character. Each work develops its own surface history and aesthetic through this interplay of making and natural forces.

Hayes’s ceramics are held in public and museum collections internationally, including the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh; the Museum of Modern Art, Kingston, Jamaica; the Gardener Collection in Toronto; the Museum of Modern Art in Brussels, Belgium; the Silber Collection in California; and the J.B. Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.