Esias Bosch, celebrated South African ceramicist and doyen of studio pottery in South Africa, has had a productive career spanning more than sixty years. His work is collected both locally and abroad and he has received numerous prestigious awards for his art. Esias has lived and worked for some fifty years in the Mpumalanga Low veld, in a rustic home and a studio built on a rocky outcrop. At the age of 85 he continues to follow the dream he had as a young, unknown potter: to cultivate a life of independence and authenticity, to work as long as he draws breath and to renew his art whenever it becomes an inner necessity to do so.
After acquiring the most demanding skills a potter can possibly aim to achieve, he created work which astounded his audience for it's mastery of form and decoration. Always an innovator, he has worked with prodigious energy in several mediums – from earthenware to stoneware, then on to porcelain followed by large and imposing wall tiles, on which he could express his love of decorating on a flat surface.
At the age of 80 he made the decision to complete his lifetime of working with clay and to return to the medium he excelled at during his student training years – painting and drawing. He finds great joy in creating images that capture the intrinsic spirit of nature. His Portraits of Trees is a compelling range of wood-pen drawings on gesso, depicting indigenous Low veld trees. 'I am not a botanical artist,' he says, 'but if I can inspire people to look at trees, really see them, I am satisfied.'
Many of his paintings attempt to distil the silence and infinite peace of space – the ephemeral beauty of clouds, light dancing on the sea, koi fish whirling in an eddy of colour in water. 'All I'm really interested in is to work while listening to the music of the great masters and make art that touches that centre in all of us where joy springs from', he says.
