Gusta van Oosterhout

20 august 1955

Raised in an atmosphere of creativeness and art, my interest in ceramics was roused when I was 20. In addition to everything that filled my life, my fascination for clay and working with it has never ceased. Despite sniffing at various techniques and other materials, clay has always remained my number one.

I create my current pieces of work from an admiration of nature. Although unapproachable, I want to express the seeds, so full of potential life, in clay, partly inspired by reality, partly by fantasy.

I mostly fire pottery as well as stoneware in an electric kiln. I also fire raku. I glaze by using various techniques and materials through and over each other, both ready-made and self-developed glazes. Glazing is important to me: it enriches my visualisation of the fruit that the piece of work bears.