Art

Item Description

Dramatically located on a tiny motu just off the lush island of Huahine, Peter Owen's studio is built in three distinct parts. His clay-working area perches out over the island's lagoon and includes an inside glaze and storage space were work is kept safe from the tropical weather.

Behind his studio to one side is the kiln shed, with a glaze-making area and an area for slip casting with over 100 molds. These are usually cast by an assistant and Owen often sculpts or reshapes them to create original forms when possible. The third part is Owen's gallery at Huahine Pearl Farm, another stand-alone business he owns, which he constructed on stilts on a coral head 200 yards (180 m) out in the lagoon. Customers are ferried out from the main gallery where people get dropped off is—all handcrafted from local woods and featuring lights made from floaters (buoys) from the pearl farm.

Owen says, "The way I have laid out my studio gives me uninterrupted working time to be creative, while bringing myself and my customers as close to nature as possible. Working over the deck, I sometimes look up and see fish jumping or even turtles surfacing. From the Pearl Farm gallery in the middle of the lagoon, humpback whales swim within 15 feet (5 m) off the deck now and then."

Owen started his ceramic career at the age of 13, sweeping the floor and dusting off the pots in a pottery shop in exchange for using the potter's wheel. "My parents [a Native-American father and American mother] did not agree with my career choice, so I left home and slept in the loft of the pottery shop without the owner knowing, one of the other potters slipping me a key. I went on to finish high school at 15 when I apprenticed as a potter. Two years later, I returned to my parents’ house in Los Gatos, California, which is where I grew up. I set up my first studio in their garage. I didn't have a kiln at that stage, so I would drive my pots one mile across town where I rented a kiln to fire them, then I'd bring them back to glaze for the second firing."

Incidentally, Peter translates to Pita in Tahitian, a word that also means pottery. When Owen arrived in Tahiti 45 years ago, he had to solve the age-old dearth of no available local clay by importing it from California. Eventually, he would discover while scuba diving around his pearl farm that the island did in fact have clay, at the bottom of the 100-foot (30 m)-deep lagoon. He now routinely uses this resource to make his trademark Huahine blue glaze, the fired effect giving the impression of running water.

Item Special Note

This plate is one in a series of four that was made specifically for this auction. This plate features a pod of Orca. It measures approximately 10 inches in diameter.

Bidder is responsible for Shipping and Handling fee, which will be added to the winning bid amount. Items will be shipped from Ocean Futures Society in California via USPS and billed at standard industry rates.  (If shipment is international, Bidder will also be responsible for any customs fees.)

We will do our very best to get this to you by the 25th but we can not guarantee the arrival date.