Les Blakebrough
:quality(82)/media/news/onstillness.jpg)
Les Blakebrough
Les Blakebrough (b. 1930) is one of Australia’s most respected ceramic artists. He is best known for the type of translucent porcelain he developed called ‘Southern Ice’ porcelain. Fired at 1300 degrees Celsius, this material has the ‘whiteness of snow and a translucence of ice’.
It is now used by ceramicists worldwide and features in the practice of another NAS alumni, Juz Kitson. Blakebrough’s works in porcelain have an ethereal simplicity and visual purity. In ‘Three tilted bowls’, a recent work from 2016, he set each bowl on an individual angle of tilt, side by side.
Wave-like lines are carved into the unglazed outer wall of each form, poetically articulating the gentle undulations of the sea. The artist says, ‘My local environment in Coledale informs what I do; the brooding presence of the sandstone escarpment, the energetic forces of the ocean and the beautiful lines of the waves rising and falling.’
Images: Les Blakebrough AM, Three tilted bowls, 2016, southern ice porcelain, 12.5 x 17 cm (each). National Art School Collection, donated by the artist via the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2018; © the artist
Latest News
Thursday 25 June 2026
:quality(82)/media/Michael-Leslie-Image-Credit-James-Brickwood-AFR.jpg)
Thursday 25 June 2026
This NAIDOC Week, the theme Fifty Years of Deadly recognises the enduring strength, resilience and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Fifty Years of Deadly is a tribute to the people who built this movement. The Elders who stood firm, the organisers who made space, the artists who turned resistance into expression, and the communities who keep showing up, year after …
Friday 29 May 2026
:quality(82)/media/Makers.jpg)
Friday 29 May 2026
The Makers Exhibition brings together works by NAS staff across teaching, technical, curatorial, administrative and library areas, celebrating the diverse creative practices that shape the school community. Presented as the launch exhibition for Third Space, the exhibition highlights making as a shared and ongoing part of life at NAS. Third Space will be open for the duration of the show from 11…
Friday 29 May 2026
:quality(82)/media/events/abbott_second-meeting-burn.jpg)
Friday 29 May 2026
Please see below for current and forthcoming exhibitions and events featuring our staff and alumni. Oliver Abbott: Processing This exhibition explores how personal and collective histories are constructed by revisiting relics of architecture and infrastructure unique to the Tweed. In Processing, Abbott reveals parallels between the construction of a painting and the way memory distorts, rearrange…