Landscape and ceramic artist James Bennett has a strong instinct for what works, visually and practically. For more than 20 years his outdoor design has transformed spaces, from meagre city lots to sprawling acreages, giving his clients delightful, usable outdoor spaces. James has lived on the Sunshine Coast for 18 years. Approaching his sunny studio, one sees evidence of his outdoor design choices in the carefully selected plants, hedges, and espaliered fruit. He has nurtured a vast rosemary hedge and common medlar, a member of the rose family. This thick shrub was once widespread in Europe and the Middle East, having been cultivated since Roman times. Medlar fruit has large, showy white blossoms in spring and is ready to harvest in late fall, when the soft fruit tastes exquisitely of applesauce. It’s not something one sees in the average front yard.
James has a down-to-earth take on landscape design. In his view: “Garden design is nothing more than hard listening to the customer and damn hard work.”
His affinity for form and earthiness translates quite seamlessly into ceramics. In his pottery, James produces a wide array of pieces, from precious, softly rounded dipping bowls to austere vessels. His sources of inspiration are wide; sometimes it is geopolitics, sometimes nature. He crafts vases with earth-inspired decorative features such as thorns and fungi, alongside sturdy and eminently usable dishware finished with cottage colours like cobalt blue and creamy white. You will see fascinating and intricate objects with shapes one might see on a diving expedition, of corals, spines, and mollusks. It’s all a little unusual, a feast for the eyes, and somehow just right.
There is nothing whimsical in James’ approach to his pottery work, either. “Pottery,” he says, “is the same hard, consistent work with the curated eye to smash the things that are not (at least) really good.” Dryly, he likes to quote an old potter: “You have to make 100 cups and throw out 99. Then you do it over again and again. Soon you might know how to make a cup.”
James’ work can be viewed and purchased at Fresh from the Coast, on Trail Avenue in Sechelt. It’s the perfect stop for curated giftware by talented local artists and crafters. How is it that we have such a wealth of craft and creativity here? Our inspiring setting? Maybe. But James says, for himself at least, it’s more simple: “This is what happens when you don’t watch TV.”
