Description

Des Loan, Collectible Green and brown charger, 14 “ dia x 3.5 “ 35.5 x 9 cm

Self-published poet and potter Des Loan was born in Ottawa in 1928. He earned a BA from Carleton University and moved to the Okanagan in 1955, where he taught high school for 32 years. Des and his wife Peg became interested in ceramics in the 1950s, taking classes in California and later in the early 1960s at the UBC Summer Extension Program at the Pottery Hut at UBC, where he studied with Stan Clarke and John Reeve. Retiring from teaching in 1985, he and his wife Peggy established their Okanagan Pottery Studio in Peachland, which operated from 1968 to 2007. The purchase of a gas-fired kiln enabled the couple to produce stoneware and porcelain and to explore a range of glazes and large-scale ceramic vases. In the early 1980s, he worked closely with Les Manning, then on sabbatical from the Banff Centre. In addition to writing poetry and making ceramics, he also exhibited oil paintings and photography. Des Loan died in 2014