Hand-painted kangaroo pottery fruit bowl by Neil Douglas

Arthur Merric Boyd & Neil Douglas stunning pottery fruit bowl with hand-painted kangaroos in landscape, titled 'The Forester of the Wallangunyah Ranges', signed 'Neil Douglas' and incised 'Arthur Merric Boyd, Australia', 10.5 cm high, 30.5 cm diameter. Neil Douglas was 30 when he was conscripted into the army in 1941. By 1943 he had become friends with Arthur Boyd and by 1946 was participating in the making and decorating of ceramics with Boyd and John Perceval at their Murrumbeena Pottery. Douglas became a partner of the Arthur Merric Boyd (Amb) Pottery in 1950, an association he maintained until 1963, when Perceval also ended his involvement there. Amongst other permutations (including not signing his works at all), he sometimes signed his ceramics 'Neil Douglas Amb Australia' or added his initials 'Nd' after 'Arthur Merric Boyd'. Douglas brought a feathery fineness to his decoration of Amb ceramics. As miniature paintings on clay, these often possess a deft sense of movement; a kangaroo, for example, bounding in quiet contrast to the stillness of the bush. John Perceval, who had met Arthur Boyd in the army in 1941 and married Arthur's sister Mary, also contributed his great skills to the output of the Amb Pottery. The Morgan collection contains fine examples of these co-operative endeavours.