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About Kester Moore
Kester Moore is an artist and designer; he hand-builds ceramic forms, paints, takes landscape and seascape photographs and designs products and processes. A degree in Geology together with a love of the coast, mountains and the landscape in general have resulted in a variety of art that is not constrained to one medium.
Ceramics. Working from his studio in Coventry, UK, Kester makes large ceramic forms which are fired in a large purpose built electric kiln or in one of two large outdoor raku kilns that he has built. Some recent work has been burnished and smoke-fired in hardwood sawdust for 48 hours, giving a rich varied surface. Finished work is supplied to a handful of fine art galleries across the U.K, but an increasing amount of work is built on a commission basis for individual customers. Kester's work is in private collections in the UK and mainland Europe. Kester is a listed artist with the Crafts Council.
This is the link: http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/craft-directory/makers/view/?guid=52c36c5b44002229&maker_ref=10768&page=91&from_page=/craft-directory/makers/list/&sortby=name&sortdir=asc
Images of some of Kester’s work can be seen on this website, but please contact Kester for more details.
Photography. High quality landscape and seascape work, some of which has won competitions. Two black and white coastal images have been made into high quality greetings card and these are available for sale. Contact Kester for details.
Painting. Kester paints colourful, abstract land and seascapes – usually on large canvases in acrylics and/or oils.
Design. Kester’s profile is of an INTJ (Myers Briggs – see below) and he is a natural questioner of the status quo who looks carefully at what has gone before and then is apt to challenge that by coming up with new ideas and approaches to problems and to products. Kester is currently bringing one of his designs to market. He has several others waiting in the pipeline!
Myers Briggs profile: INTJ INTJs live in the world of ideas and strategic planning. They value intelligence, knowledge, and competence, and typically have high standards in these regards, which they continuously strive to fulfil. INTJ’s make up c.3% of the population. With Introverted Intuition dominating their personality, INTJs focus their energy on observing the world, and generating ideas and possibilities. Their mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. They are tremendously insightful and usually are very quick to understand new ideas. However, their primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. INTJs have a tremendous amount of ability to accomplish great things. They have insight into the Big Picture, and are driven to synthesize their concepts into solid plans of action. Their reasoning skills gives them the means to accomplish that.
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Ceramics
Kester Moore took a BSc Honours Degree in Earth and Life Studies, majoring in Geology, at Derby College of Higher Education. The course covered the formation of rocks and minerals, the shaping of the landscape, and palaeontology. Having emerged from here with a good understanding of the Earth and it's landscape, and what forms and influences it, he studied studio ceramics at Tile Hill College, Coventry, and has been making ceramic pieces for a number of years, working at his studio at Tile Hill, Coventry.
Always striving to make pieces that look at home in a natural environment, Kester uses the hand-building techniques of coiling, pinching and slab-building, favouring the slow, gradual build process and the organic form that results. A piece can take about two weeks to build, spending a couple of hours on it a day.
Once the shape is built, various slips and oxides are applied to the surface. Designs and patterns are often scratched or carved into the surface. Pieces are then biscuit fired before being glazed with a variety of glazes and oxides, often applied in layers so as to encourage interesting reactions and surface texture. Pieces are then fired to a variety of temperatures, depending on the desired result. Many pieces are fired two or more times to 'stoneware' temperature (1220 degrees centigrade). Other work is fired in large raku kilns outside and transferred to a reducing environment before being smoke fired and cooled in hardwood sawdust.
An avid landscape and seascape photographer, Kester likes to produce images of his ceramic forms that reflect the conditions and environment that inspired the work. Consequently he, his wife Christine and daughter Charlotte can be found from time to time carrying pots along the coast path and onto a beach in Dorset, digging holes and partially burying the pieces at the sea edge! The result of this is a highly unusual portfolio of excellent photographs
Kester has a variety of customers, including those who purchase through galleries as well as people who visit the house and studio. Many of the customers want to buy a large photograph of the piece that they have bought, so that they can frame it and display it near to the pot itself. As several of the customers have said, "how likely are we to take this pot and carry it onto a cliff edge or bury it on a beach, and risk breaking it, or having it washed out to sea?" This last point is a very valid one: on several occasions, Kester has watched as a wave has picked up a heavy piece and deposited it 20 feet or so down the beach!
Contact Kester Moore
Telephone 02476 462 813, mobile 07540 374933
Email: kester.moore@btinternet.com