Yvonne Rust (New Zealand) ceramics

Yvonne Rust (1922-2002) was a New Zealand pioneering potter, passionate arts teacher, and in later years, a prolific painter. She was born on 19 November 1922 in Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand. Her parents were Gordon and Annie Rust (née Buckhurst). Gordon was a Native Schools Headmaster working among Maori, and Annie was an accomplished artist who had been a tutor at Canterbury College of Art (today, Ilam School of Fine Arts attached to Canterbury University). Yvonne's early years were spent amongst M?ori, and from 1928, in New Zealand's northernmost community, Te Hapua, where she was the only white child.

She completed a diploma in fine arts in 1946 and became a high school art teacher, mostly in Canterbury, in New Zealand's South Island. She developed pottery skills in the communities in which she lived, starting eight studios. She also organised and directed the first national more... pottery workshop and school and started her own art school in 1959.

In 1967 she moved to the West Coast and started teaching at Greymouth High School. She established a pottery workshop in an old brewery near Greymouth, and with assistance from Barry Brickell and others, built a coal-fired salt kiln. In 1976 Yvonne Rust established the Northland Craft Trust and worked to secure a site in a disused quarry near Whangarei for a regional art and craft centre. The Centre, Quarry Arts Centre, opened in 1980.

In the 1983 New Year Honours, Rust was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for community service. A few years later, she began painting and later received an award for her work from the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington. In 1997, Rust returned to the West Coast to live in Runanga. She died in Greymouth in 2002, aged 79.

Yvonne Rust was one of the first potters in New Zealand to use local clays and glazes, and she experimented with a variety of techniques, including salt glazing and raku firing. Rust was also a passionate advocate for the arts. She was a founding member of the Northland Craft Trust, and she worked tirelessly to promote the work of New Zealand artists. She was also a mentor to many young artists. less...