Theophilus Brouwer's abilities were diverse in the extreme. He was a skilled carpenter and architect, as well as a sculptor of public monuments, living in the Long Island, NY, area. Brouwer also decided to create art pottery between 1893 and 1911, calling his studio, Middle Lane Pottery. He used some of the most unusual, complex and difficult processes possible. Brouwer developed a type of glazing which he called "Flame Painting." Remarkable iridescent flame-like effects appeared on the surfaces. A number of other complicated glazes and techniques were developed at his hands.

Episode #3: Vintage Books

Paul J. Katrich talks about collecting books, and he shows interesting examples. Vintage, rare and antiquarian books can often be found at very low prices. Compared to computer files, books can be collected as physical objects, to be held and enjoyed in many ways. Beginning collectors can easily start a personal library. Literature, nonfiction and instructional titles are shown. Book art is displayed, including Gustave Dore illustrations in a copy of Dante's Inferno. Episode #2: Jacques Sicard & Weller Sicard Pottery Jacques Sicard was an unique pottery decorator, who developed his own glazes and methods to achieve extraordinary colors with iridescent, satin-matte surfaces. He first developed these glazes and techniques in the late 1800's while working with the important studio potter, Clement Massier in France. Then in the early 1900's, Sicard came to the United States and designed works for the Weller Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio. There he produced the famous Weller Sicard line of pottery, also known as Sicardo. Jacques Sicard produced this pottery in secret, and when he left Weller Pottery in 1907, they were unable to continue his methods. Click Here to See More Videos with Paul J. Katrich.       American Bungalow Article: Paul J. Katrich - Throwing Light  Click here for the American Bungalow Website.         2011 Magazine Article by Paul J. Katrich: Hidden Lights - 4 Great Potters  Available from www.Style1900.com         American Art Pottery Collecting Broadcast Television Interviews with Paul J. Katrich Collecting American Art Pottery   If you can not see the video screen, you may be using an older browser. Please upgrade your browser or search for and install the free Firefox or Google Chrome.         A Fine Gift and a Special Possession Photographic Edition Prints Detail Pigment Prints of Katrich Pottery, Available for Purchase   "Hudson River Valley", Print P1105, and "The Nine Planets", Print P1266.   View all images of Katrich Prints, with details for purchasing.     The Katrich Mark What People are Saying...   Click Here for the Paul J. Katrich Facebook Page We invite you to become an official "Fan" of Paul Katrich Pottery, with all the rights, benefits and privileges that this implies. Antique Trader magazine interview with Paul J. Katrich in 2010 article, "The Time is Right for American Art Pottery." "Katrich's work is quickly becoming part of the permanent collections of many museums and organizations ... Katrich vessels are known for their brilliant lustre, texture, and elegant form." (Antiques and the Arts Weekly - May 5, 2006) "Today, his forms are classical with brilliant colors in deep, thick numerous and interactive glazes, ... none are duplicated." (PBS Antiques RoadShow Insider - July, 2006) "Innovative, yet evocative of past masters." (American Bungalow - Issue #29, Spring, 2001) "His pottery, his fellowship, and his philosophy will captivate you." (AAPA Journal - May, 2004) "Paul Katrich ... has been busily rediscovering the secrets of luster, lava, and volcanic glazes yet again, and using them to spin his own ceramic fantasies." (Style: 1900 - November, 2007) "Rarity and Quality are assured." (Style: 1900 - November, 2002) The Talented Mr. Katrich Style: 1900 - August, 2006   View more from Style: 1900, and how to subscribe.     Glazes of Glory Article by Marilyn Fish     Condensed for information about Paul J. Katrich.   Art & Antiques Collector's Sourcebook is included with Art & Antiques magazine.   Copies are available at larger book stores.   Click on image for a larger version.     Solo Show in New York City: "Luster Pottery of Paul J. Katrich - Four Elements, Four Seasons" Gala Opening, YWCA-NYC Art Gallery, 610 Lexington Avenue (at 53rd St.)     View photographs of the Solo Exhibition vessels.       The New York Ceramics Fair   January 20-24, 2010   Opening Night: January 19, 2010   National Academy Museum 1083 Fifth Avenue (at 89th) New York City.   Sold Out on Opening Night   Bloomberg.com mention of Paul J. Katrich at the 2010 New York Ceramics Fair: New York's Park Avenue Set Ignores Dow's Slump, Shops for Art By Lindsay Pollock "Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- New York's Park Avenue set has begun buying art again -- battered stock markets be damned! -- judging from the buzz and sales Thursday at the opening night of the 56th Winter Antiques Show. "Several other art souks have sprung up around New York, timed to coincide with the Winter Show, including the New York Ceramics Fair at the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts. "While most of the ceramics fair seemed sleepy Thursday afternoon, Paul J. Katrich's shiny glazed vessels were a hot item. Katrich sold out a dozen within the first hour of the fair and stuck a handwritten sign in his glass vitrine reading "Sold Out! We Love New York." His work sells for $400 to $4,000. ""If you don't blow your own horn, who is going to do it for you," Katrich said." Read the complete review of the 2010 New York Ceramics Fair and the Winter Antiques Show, at Bloomberg.com.   "Infinite Meadows of Heaven" Luster Vessel 1405.   Paul J. Katrich and George A. Lees at the 2010 New York Ceramics Fair.     View Luster Vessels at the NY Ceramics Fair.       Living with Katrich Pottery     "The Right Side of Dawn" (1036), "Music of the Spheres" (807), "Spiral Galaxies" (812).   To see a larger photograph, please click on an image.     Design and Lecture Services   Paul J. Katrich is a modern traditionalist. He is also a degreed Art Historian and frequent guest lecturer in the fine and decorative arts. An accomplished sculptor and artist in many media, he offers a variety of professional design services. Mr. Katrich serves as Secretary on the Board of the American Art Pottery Association. "I am always delighted to speak to you regarding your needs and interests. I am pleased to discuss gallery and museum shows, charitable events, commissions, lectures or special purchases. You may expect a prompt and polite response." - Paul J. Katrich Your questions and comments are gratefully received, by sending e-mail to Luster@Katrich.com or by phoning (248) 738-7720     Fine Art Pottery   The pottery consists of fine, hand-thrown ceramic vessels, fired with rare colors and treatments, including in-glaze iridescent lusters. Each piece is utterly unique in design and execution: no repetition is possible. Flawed or inferior examples are destroyed: no second-quality Katrich pottery is ever permitted to enter the marketplace.   To see a larger photograph, please click on an image.       "Summer - August Dawn" (804), "Autumn - When the Leaves Fall" (815), "Winter - The First Snowfall" (810), "Spring - The Winds Of April" (816).   An Interview with Paul J. Katrich by George A. Lees   Q. How did you become a potter? A. I actually started out with the intention of being a painter. I didn't much enjoy painting classes, but the required Art History college courses intrigued me. I decided to do something related, which might offer the chance of making a living - Art Historian or Curator. I have always loved art, and even had my own "museum" when I was a child (coins, stamps, seashells, etc.). Museum conservation was a career choice I happened into; one which seemed to offer an acceptable compromise. Q. What influence did conservation/restoration have in directing you towards pottery? A. Through good fortune, I found myself working in the conservation studio at a local museum, where I learned a tremendous amount. We had very limited resources, and had to be highly creative to make things work. We restored everything from railway cars to grandfather clocks. I had the wonderful experience of learning from the skilled hands of several older gentlemen, who were among the last and best in their trades. With some left turns, and additional degrees, this job ultimately led me to start my own restoration business. I eventually began to specialize in the repair and conservation of antique ceramics. Q. Why ceramics, in particular? A. I had enjoyed antique ceramics and glass for a long time, collecting them myself in a modest way. There was a real need in my area for a skilled restorer - I had no real competition. I was actually sort of crushed by success, because I always had too much business and not enough help, once I became known. Q. Why did you give up restoration? A. I didn't plan to - it's an unusual business. People don't realize that as a restorer you pretty much have to accept whatever work comes your way. If you are going to spend months restoring a piece - living with it intimately, you had better hope it's something you can stand the sight of. A good conservator has to almost immerse his personality in the object he is working on: to become another artist and leave himself behind. I restored some fascinating objects: 18th century Meissen figurines, American Arts & Crafts vessels, ancient pottery, marble statuary, among others. Frequently, I'd have to teach myself an entirely new technique, or buy equipment just to work on a single piece. In the course of this experimentation, I kept finding myself called back to my own art. I had an affinity for ceramics that I never had for painting. I decided to use my accumulated wealth of unusual skills and equipment, and see if something new could issue from my own hands. Q. So then you were a success in pottery, overnight? A. Any artist who is looking for an instant reward isn't very realistic. I have a very healthy ego, which has taken quite a beating. Persistence is almost more important than talent. I made a brief foray into tile manufacture. I found all my time consumed with employees, bookkeeping and people wanting me to match glazes to their sofa cushions. It was obvious that this couldn't be the kind of fine art that I needed it to be. My energies were not being properly used. Q. How did you begin to make lusterware? A. I had been aware of iridescent glassware, such as Tiffany, Loetz and Steuben, for many years. Later, I saw fine antique ceramic pieces from the Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Modernist Movements, which astonished me. I have never taken a pottery course nor had a teacher. With books, research, endless patience and frustration, I taught myself to throw vessels and compound glazes. With naievete' and the aforementioned healthy ego, I set out to learn about luster making. Darned if I didn't do it, because no one told me I couldn't. Q. How do you view your work? A. I'm like an actor who sticks to a classical repertoire, or maybe an opera singer. I'm an unrepentant classicist. Frankly, I didn't like much of what I saw in the contemporary ceramics scene, and felt there was no welcome for me there. The Bernard Leach school caused a whole generation of potters to fear color. The emphasis on large expressionist sculptural work struck few chords with me. I want color back, I want beauty back, and I don't think that elegance is a bad word. I don't claim to have invented lusterware. Neither am I the only one to utilize it. I want to do things with it that have never been done -- through the constraint of well-crafted objects, pleasing to the eye, and refreshing to the spirit. Q. What makes lusters special? A. I don't confine my work to lusters. I like brilliant color generally, but lusters contain an evocation of alchemy, which really appeals, and which I can't let go. Many of the past ceramists have gotten the addiction; it's like gold fever. Part of the attraction is the difficulty and expense of the process; the endless trouble to achieve a fine piece, and the satisfaction when you are able. Q. Which potters do you admire? A. There are many. I love much anonymous work from ancient cultures: Egypt, Persia, Cyprus and Greece. Of course, the luster compulsion has moved a number of gifted potters: Beatrice Wood, Maija Grotell, Clement Massier, Gertrude and Otto Natzler, Jacques Sicard, and the Zsolnay Factory. I really identify with an obscure potter from the turn of the century, named Theophilus Brouwer. He was a self-taught innovator, who made incredible and beautiful luster vessels. His work is very rare, and I have never seen a piece that wasn't exceptional. Glassmakers are also very important to me. Louis Tiffany was, in my opinion, the greatest decorative artist since the Renaissance. The Art Nouveau Movement was a season of giants, producing many extraordinary talents. That Tiffany and Emile Gallé were alive and working simultaneously is comparable to the age of Da Vinci and Michelangelo. They were that good. A contemporary artist, whose work I find particularly exciting and beautiful, is glassmaker Dale Chihuly. Q. Where is your work heading? A. I want to explore colors in nature, to the farthest degree possible. I have never understood potters who insist on variations of brown as bringing them closer to the earth. The natural world is riotous with color -- organic and inorganic. I recognize no limits in this regard. Most of all, I intend to create beautiful, meaningful objects that bring joy to the possessor, in the same proportion as they did in the making. This is not a hobby or affectation: this is my profession. There is much left to do.      "Evening Star" (from the Edgar Allan Poe poem) Luster Vessel 951. Read Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "Evening Star", and view more images of the luster vessel in our Park Avenue Armory (Seventh Regiment Armory), New York City, show page.     Home A Katrich Treasury Every Vessel Feature Presentations History For Purchase Fine Art Prints Show Schedule   Links For Favorite Websites     Photography, videography and website about Paul J. Katrich are by George A. Lees, a graduate of Cranbrook School and the University of Michigan. Fine-art photography and videography services are available from George A. Lees, through Katrich Studios. Please send email to GeorgeLees@Katrich.com or call us at (248) 738-7720. All text and pictures at this website are copyright protected. The descriptions, designs, photography and videography of the art, pottery and history of Paul J. Katrich are copyright © 1995-2012 Katrich Studios, Inc., and all rights are reserved. Individuals and entities may not reproduce, use, copy, plagiarize or otherwise borrow anything without the express written permission of Katrich Studios, Inc. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of U.S. and international copyright law. The only exception is for limited, traditional "Fair Use", where attribution to Paul J. Katrich must be indicated. Additional text and pictures with links about places, events and websites are owned by their respective copyright holders. 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