Master of colour

摘要

Before you read this feature on Richard Godfrey, may I make an unusual request? If I could, I would have embedded a song in these pages, one that would play automatically when you came across this article. So as you read on, might I ask you all to imagine that Here Comes the Sun, by George Harrison, is playing gently in the background? It was at Keramisto, the annual international ceramic fair at Milsbeek in The Netherlands, that I first came across Richard Godfrey and his work. It was setting-up day and his stand was diagonally opposite mine, a good 150 metres away, yet the abundance of colour, both in his flamboyant work and in the way he was dressed (in a Beach Boy-style Hawaiian shirt), caught my attention. Over a short period of time I began to realise that Richard was the guy that everyone gravitated to. He brought a little something extra, a little sunshine, to every ceramic event that he attended. In quiet moments, or at party time in the evening, he would sing and play the guitar or ukulele alongside some of his regular companions. I can't profess to have known Richard well enough to say he was happy all of the time, but his carefree deineanour in public was infectious and his work brought (and still brings) delight to many. He was a very early pioneer of taking pieces across the channel to show throughout Europe, and his distinctive style guaranteed a receptive audience. Years ago he achieved the dream of many an exhibitor - completely selling out of pots (at the Gmunden Ceramic Market) - but Richard was not a self-promoter or publicist of any kind; he chose to share his successes with his friends and contemporaries enthusiastically, but quietly.