Well-known potter will never be forgotten
On Saturday, 6 January, the local pottery industry had lost one of the most delicate and gentle pair of hands it had seen in a long time.
Local potter, Chris Patton was not only admired by his students and loved ones for moulding a beautiful life’s worth of work, he was also loved for shaping, glazing and enriching the lives of those around him.
On Saturday, 6 January, the local pottery industry lost one of its most delicate and gentle pairs of hands. According to his son, Anthony Patton, Chris was diagnosed with gastric cancer in November last year.
“He worked and did what he loved up until ten days before his death. He refused to go for chemo as it does not cure the cancer, it just delays death. He also didn’t want to go to hospital – it was his wish to die at home,” Anthony explained.
Chris’ love of the arts dates back to the 1950s when he chose art as a career.
His artistic talent and flair surfaced during his years at the Belfast College of Art (currently the University of Ulster’s School of Art and Design) in Northern Ireland where he grew up. There he found specific interest in both lithography and pottery.
After teaching art as an subject, opening a studio with two other college students and moulding some of his signature work, he married Janet and the couple had two beautiful children.
Chris started feeling a deep unease about the political environment in Northern Ireland and though never in real danger, he started thinking about seeking a safer place to call home as well as a new audience for his work.
In 1982 he gave up hobbies like sailing competitively around the islands of Northern Ireland and hunting birds, to emigrate to South Africa. He opened his well-known pottery studio in Muldersdrift. Over the years Chris and his wife were blessed with five beautiful grandchildren.
“His grandchildren made him very happy. He was always just doing things for them, and they admired him for that. He demonstrated his emotions by using his hands. He would never really be vocal about it,” Anthony said.
Over and above his ceramics he would also build and paint toy boxes for his children and wife.
“He touched so many lives and brought such happiness with his work. I’m glad he chose art,” he said.
He went on to explain that his father often made friends and tried to avoid conflict. He was also extremely gentle, kind and thoughtful.
“He just had this natural kind of Irish charm. Even when we were growing up, he gave us the freedom to fail and experience life. He would never just say no. He would rather explain to us why our actions were not quite clever. And that right there was his personality,” Anthony explained.
Even though Chris struggled at times to maintain his family on an artist’s salary, he always did what had to be done to ensure their happiness. Even though he wasn’t keen on making bird feeders, for instance, he had to honour his audience, in order to put his two sons through school.
Anthony is proud to say that his passionate father will always live on through what he taught him.
“Everything my dad taught me about art, I am able to teach my children. Everything they know is what I’ve learnt through their grandfather. He will always live on through the art we make,” he said.
“He was such a wonderful and special man who never gave up. He was a pillar of strength and taught me a lot about doing what has to be done in all life instances.”
With the vivid graphics of fish, dragonfly and African-themed ceramics, his legacy will most certainly live on for a very long time.
If you would like to read more about Chris Patton’s early life, feel free to visit https://www.artatworktoday.com/the-artists/chris-patton/.
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