West Hugh

Hugh West was born in York in 1950 and lived in Yorkshire until he was six years old, then moving to Wales when his father took over the management of a large farm estate in Breconshire. At seventeen Hugh left to study at Hereford School of Art & Design, transferring to Redruth School of Art to take a further ceramics course for which he was awarded a diploma with distinction. After work experience with several established potters, Hugh opened his own pottery in Newquay in 1971.

An opportunity arose in 1975 to begin a large production pottery in Devon on the Flete estate. After this, in 1982, Hugh took his family to La Borne in the department of Cher, France, where an ancient pottery village still survives, repeating the traditional forms and ways of wood firing important to that region of central France, using an anagama kiln.

Exhibitions and Memberships: These include numerous one-man shows in Britain; collective shows in Europe, Japan, the USA, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and, in 1996, a 25th anniversary in Truro. When based in the UK Hugh has been a member of Cornwall Crafts Association, the West Country Potters Association, and the Penwith Society of Arts; then becoming a member of the Ceramics Association of La Borne (ACLB) and renewing his CCA membership on return to the UK.