Gladys Reynell

Bio

Gladys Reynell (1881–1956) was one of South Australia's earliest potters and is known for her bold modernist style and her preference for working with native clays. In Adelaide she studied painting with Margaret Rose Preston, who became a close friend. In 1912 they went to Europe, living and studying in Paris and Brittany and enjoying an idyllic life as artists until 1913 when they moved to live and paint in London; they also taught in Ireland. Gladys exhibited with the Old Salon in Paris, with several English groups, and at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Walker Gallery, Liverpool.

Reynell's work anticipated that of the influential English studio potter Bernard Leach. She espoused the English Arts and Craft Movement's ideals concerning the handcraft ethic, and the integrity and tradition of early craftsmen. She investigated and emulated the work of Gottlieb Zoerner, an early South Australian potter. Preston and Reynell lived, worked, travelled and exhibited together, and shared an intimate relationship from around 1911 until 1919.

Both artists married shortly after their return to Australia, Preston in 1919, Reynell in 1922. Reynell's closeness to Margaret Preston is evident in Reynell's designs; the colour, form and primitivism. Reynell decorated her earthenware teapots, mugs, vases, plates, bowls and jugs, utilizing traditional English slipware and sgraffito techniques to produce abstract patterns, and to illustrate Australian fauna and flora, and local country and farm scenes which reveal her gentleness and warmth. Much of her work was finished with the characteristic rich 'Reynella blue' slip.

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