Reeve, John

John Reeve, born in Barrie, Ontario in 1929, married Donna Balma, born in 1934 in Victoria, British Columbia. They were artists, John a potter and Donna a self-taught painter and writer. John studied sculpture and later ceramics at the Vancouver School of Art in 1955. John became part of the Bernard Leach-influenced British Columbia modern pottery movement when he and Donna went to England in 1958 so that John could study under Bernard Leach and his wife, Janet. They, along with the others studying and working there including Glenn Lewis and Michael Henry, become pivotal and famous for the sort of artist collective that grew and developed out of this study under Bernard Leach in the Cornish fishing village of St Ives. Donna had two children, Hannah, while at St. Ives and Soledad, born in Victoria upon their return to Canada.

At this time in art history in Canada, pottery began to be looked at as art and not merely as functional craft. After his two and a half year apprenticeship at St. Ives Pottery, John and Donna returned to Canada and John taught at UBC. They returned to England in 1962 where he established a Pottery with Glenn Lewis and Warren Mackenzie called Longlands, which was closed a few years later due to financial difficulties. In 1966, John and Donna again returned to England upon invitation from Janet Leach to oversee the Leach Pottery.

During the 1970s, John taught at the Vancouver School of Art and while there published two pivotal books on pottery glazing. Later he commuted from California to Vancouver to a Granville Island pottery studio which he shared with two of his former students, Sam Kwan and Ron Vallis. During this time, John’s work was featured in many Canadian galleries.

Donna and John separated shortly after November 1974, when they left England for the last time and returned to the Sunshine Coast, BC, where both worked at Michael Henry's Slug Pottery. John Reeve lived in New Mexico where he lectured and taught, and he had moved from functional ceramics to large sculptures. John Reeve passed away on June 28, 2012 at his home in New Mexico. Donna Balma, a registered massage therapist and self-taught artist, was and still is known for her bold, complex, illustrious and dreamlike paintings (often dubbed surreal in genre). She is also a published writer of fiction and art history. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest rainforest of British Columbia.

Created December 18, 2010.