KEVIN KILSBY

Kevin Kilsby began his ceramic career with one-off art pieces, then became a prolific producer of garden pukeko birds, cartoon ware and Kiwiana.  And now he's back to making one-off art pieces. 

Above: three teapots that have recently come my way.  From left, the popular cat images, the early Grapes and Oranges pattern, and a one-off design featuring dice. 

Kevin Kilsby in his garden in Mt Albert, Auckland. Image Kevin Kilsby

“I saw this infinite magical potential in the clay, it was just tactile and permanent and vast and I saw these ancient pieces of pottery that were still looking amazing after sometimes thousands of years… once I started into clay that was that”

Kevin Kilsby is widely known as ‘the pukeko guy’ – in the last 30 years he has sold hundreds of thousands of these quirky garden sculptures, along with a prolific line in seagulls, pigeons, tui, kiwi, piwakawaka (fantail) and ruru (morepork).  He also makes a range of colourful mugs, jugs, vases, teapots and tiles featuring kiwiana themes, cartoon characters, cats, and native plants and flowers. 

Above:  pukeko garden ornament.  Image Kevin Kilsby 

These days the pukeko still sell, but he is making more one-off art pieces.  His delight in the New Zealand forest has inspired him to create detailed composite wall sculptures with ceramic leaves, twigs and even tiny bugs, all glued securely together into a harmonious whole.

Like many of his peers, Kevin took up pottery as a hobby in the early 1980s.  Still in his early 20s, he had gained a science degree and settled into full-time work. With time on his hands he sought an outlet for his artistic talent. Kevin started off as an art potter, making  ceramic sculptures and learning from scratch about clay and glazes. Some of the first pieces were sold to a gallery shop in Lower Queen Street. He describes his first visit as “A timid young potter walking in there with a box of stuff…” 

Waka form with porcelain slip and oxides, from about1992. He had a similar piece in the Fletcher Challenge exhibition around that time. Image Kevin Kilsby

Kevin’s one-off pieces sold well and attracted critical interest, but they didn’t make a living.  To speed up production he began slipcasting, decorating bowls and mugs and vases and plates in a distinctive colourful hand-brushed style. 

Above: the first commercially successful pattern was 'Grapes and Oranges" - so named because it features those fruit. 

By this time Kevin was lliving in Hamilton and working part time at the Western Potters Supplies shop in Te Rapa. He had ready access to materials and after work and during quiet periods he began slipcasting a few mugs, improvising a workbench out of piles of old pallets out the back. His moulds were made by Auckland-based Bruce Yallop. At that time Quentin Whitehouse owned Western Potters and on trips to Hamilton he was generous with advice and encouragement for the young novice.  

Above: a fruit bowl featuring persimmons.  This is a special piece. Only three were ever made

By the early 1980s, Western Potters was selling new coloured stains and Kevin took to them with great joy, decorating his pieces with bright hand-brushed slips topped with durable clear glaze.

Production increased and two staff were recruited to keep up with demand. Right from the early days, Kevin made sure that his work was marked – see the catalogue at the end of this post. 

 A Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grant in 1992 enabled Kevin to buy kilns and equipment, and build his first studio.  From then through the mid to late 1990s he was making a steady living, with the Western Potters part-time job to supplement his income from pottery. But then, - as he puts it - the mother bird pushed him out of the nest.   Quentin and Cathy Whitehouse sold the Hamilton branch of their business, and the new owners wanted to run it themselves.

Quite abruptly, Kevin found himself having to earn an income from pottery alone.  In 1994 he and his partner Brent moved to Auckland.  Kevin set up a workshop in a large bleak warehouse and they lived there for a few months before finding a permanent home.

 At the new house, production quickly ramped up. A few experimental pukeko garden ornaments sold like hot cakes, and before long he was making thousands.   

 Soon Kevin had nine staff, dotted all around the property wherever he could find a workspace. For 12 years he also ran a busy shop in a nearby commercial block.  By that stage the team were making thousands of garden ornaments, birds, bowls, mugs and vases decorated in Kilsby’s distinctive quirky humorous style, and selling throughout New Zealand.   Kiwiana was very popular, especially Pohutukawa themes. Kevin created the original designs but allowed each decorator to add their own subtle variations.

The business ran smoothly apart from a couple of hiccups when other potteries started copying his designs, and Kevin was forced to take legal action.

Above: Kilsby's cartoon figures were popular, and with humorous slogans they became even more so.  Cat-themed ware also sold well, and still does to this day.

Above: Kevin Kilsby pohutukawa ware, 2021. Image Kevin Kilsby

Gradually, from those boom years the demand for Kilsby ware has declined. As demand decreased and his age increased, Kevin did not replace staff as they left. His longest serving staff member of around 27 years retired in 2020 just before the first Covid lockdown.  Now he is down to one part-timer and another who comes in from time to time.

 After 30 years mass producing pottery, Kevin has changed his focus. The outlet shop still features mugs and jugs and teapots decorated with his signature toetoe and pohutukawa flowers, birds, cats and cartoons. Assorted ceramic birds and cats on anodised (powder coated) aluminium legs are still available. But alongside, there are richly coloured wall sculptures, as well as individual leaves and fish.

When he turned 60, Kevin decided to give himself time to experiment and to play with clay.   The very successful leaf wall sculptures were a result of that decision.   He has found a niche that he loves, and the new work is unique and sought after.  One of the wall sculptures won the People's Choice award in the National Ceramics exhibition in Dunedin in 2021. 

Kevin Kilsby wall sculpture.  Image Kevin Kilsby

Kevin has rediscovered a love of nature and his work reflects what he sees on tramping trips in the New Zealand bush.  He often lags behind his walking companions.  “Everyone else is looking ahead like you should but I am peering at the leaves on the ground,” he says.   

 His early work was symmetrical and perfect “I was really into precision and neatness and it was kind of uptight, but now I am trying to do works that are rougher with more texture. I am interested in the imperfect, in that process of decay, and often the leaves have bits eaten out of them, or they are broken, bits of broken twigs and detritus from the forest floor. It is more interesting that perfection.” 

Each wall sculpture is assembled from scores, if not hundreds of tiny individually made pieces.  This leaf features a tiny spider. Note the gecko, bottom left. Image Kevin Kilsby

Over the years Kevin has experimented with other media besides clay.   For about three years in the 1990s he worked in cast glass. The work sold well and he still feels pride in what he achieved, but glass can be difficult and unpredictable, and he needed expensive equipment to pursue the medium successfully.  So he went back to clay which is more forgiving. 

Above: Kevin Kilsby cast glass pieces. He has also made ceramic jugs in the same shape. 

Alongside his clay work, Kevin tends a lush and beautiful subtropical garden, featuring pieces from his workshop and from other artists.  The garden is open to visitors to the studio shop. 

Timeline

1981 – Kevin Kilsby began making ceramic art pieces.

1988 – made intricate pressed ware with coloured porcelain

1992 QE2 grant enabled him to buy a kiln and other equipment and build a studio

1981 moved to Hamilton from Palmerston North

1986-1991 – worked at Western Potters Supplies Hamilton shop and began slipcasting

1993/1994 moved back to Auckland.  Set up workshop in his home in Mt Albert.

1996-2010. The peak years. Making kiwiana and quirky cartoon ware.  Employed up to eight staff and sold throughout New Zealand

1998-2010 – had a shop in Mt Albert

2019 – began moving away from slipcast ware.  Made the first wall sculptures

 

Identifying Kevin Kilsby’s work

Apart from the occasional salt and pepper shaker, it is very unlikely that you will come across an unmarked piece of Kevin Kilsby's work. Kevin never used a potter's mark stamp but almost without exception pieces that came from his workshop carry one of his signature marks. 

Above: hand-scratched Kevin Kilsby in pressed porcelain.  December 1988. This is typical of how Kevin marked his early works.  

Above: signature included in Grapes and Oranges pattern. Circa 1990

Above: hand-inscribed signature on limited edition plate. 

 Above: Kilsby '91 signature, again included as part of the pattern on a hand-decorated bowl

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Above: This is the best known Kilsby mark, used from date to the present day. it is seen here on a small hand-decorated dish. 

Above: Kilsby NZ on salt and peppers. Note that one of the pair is unmarked.

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KK NZ. Again, note that one of the pair of salt and peppers is unmarked

Kilsby NZ including date 1993

Above: Kilsby NZ impressed into clay 

Kevin Kilsby Designer Ceramics sticker. Found on the blue and white tile above. 

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Most of the information for this post came from Valerie Monk’s interview with Kevin Kilsby, at his home on 7 November 2019 and correspondence following that interview. 

Further material is derived from the Kevin Kilsby Ceramics website. 

There is more information on the New Zealand Pottery Forum website

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