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Lot 5Walter Dexter, brown plate with calligraphic designWalter Dexter, brown plate with calligraphic design, 11" in diameter.
Condition: Very good, no chips or cracks.
A decorative plate made during the lean Kelowna Canada years. Plate is signed and chopped Kelowna Canada on the bottom.
At an early age Dexter was drawn to art. After completing high school he attend the Alberta Institute of Technology and Art commercial art diploma program. Under the tutelage one of his instructors, Luke Lindoe, Dexter became interested in ceramics. He went on to receive the Diploma in Ceramics from the then Alberta College of Art in 1954. He eventually did receive a small scholarship from the University of Manitoba for a year of study in Sweden. This lasted from 1954-55 at the Swedish School of Arts and Crafts. He toured and produced in Sweden but the money ran out. The next stops were in England, working on a farm, and then washing dishes in a hospital in London. He thought about earning money to return home but he was having too good a time visiting art galleries and museums in London and touring Europe with friends. He was still in contact with Lindoe who asked to come and work for him at Lindoe's new business, Ceramic Arts in Calgary. Back in Calgary Dexter did work for Lindoe for a while at Ceramic Arts. He was soon working at Medalta in Medicine Hat, managing the plant, a job at which he felt he was terribly suited. In fact the next years would prove to be financially challenging for Dexter. His future moves were mostly financially based, sometimes in desperation. Business-wise it was an emotionally and physically draining time. He tried selling from his studio in Kelowna BC, but he found it confining and not very profitable. His studio was eventually taken over by Gerald Tillapaugh and Bob Kingsmill in 1967, when Dexter moved to Nelson to take the position of ceramics instructor from teaching at the Kootenay School of Art. Here he met his future wife Rona Murray. In the mid 1970s they moved to Metchosin, on Vancouver Island, and by 1981 he was selling only on Saturdays out of his studio showroom - and the customers were coming to him. He switched his focus to produce more decorative pieces over functional items. Rona passed in 2003, and Walter stayed on southern Vancouver island until his death in 2015.
Estimate$300 - $400
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$150
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