The Art
Roman Hubbell’s artworks since he settled in Hawaii include
breathtaking murals of individually crafted tiles
featuring an astonishing illusion of stunning,
one-of-a-kind custom pieces of glazed pottery and
bronze. All Hubbell’s work is hand thrown and fired by
the artist in his Kahuna Rd. studio on Kaua’i.
Hubbell’s pottery embodies the four magic elements of Earth,
Air, Fire and Water. The Ancients described these four
principles as encompassing the entirety of all things.
Hubbell recreates an essential part of his own existence
through his manipulation of these four basic elements.
He shares his pleasure, delight and wonderment with
others.
Hubbell waves aside cultural boundaries, drawing on the
fullest artistic flowerings of past civilizations to
capture what is truly classic and enduring through his
use of form and shape.
Roman Hubbell is the foremost exponent of the intricate and
time-consuming glazing techniques perfected in China
during the T’ang and Ming Dynasties. Each piece of
pottery receives three of more separate glazes,
controlled applications of color that unfold a painter’s
spectrum of opaque and translucent hues. This multiple
glazing instills a tri-dimensional effect to the
pottery’s surface, adding a dynamic sense of aliveness
to Hubbell’s work. The provocative and compelling color
effects that result are achieved by Hubbell’s passionate
adherence to the matchless pigmentations deemed
essential by the great masters of the past, but
considered too unpredictable by most potters today.
Hawaii’s contribution to Hubbell’s color thematic is readily
apparent as both subtle and vivid. The islands’ unique
heritage is given expression also in Hubbell’s poetic
sculptural carvings of Hawaiian floral and marine life
that provide themes for much of his work.
One must look at Roman Hubbell’s work, contemplate it, and
view it in countless variations of light and shadow.
Only over time will you realize just how much Roman
Hubbell has shared with you in a single piece of
pottery. |
The Artist
Roman Hubbell is a master potter, an artisan who has carried
his craft into the domain of fine art. Gifted with high
talent and possessing a wide range of expression,
Hubbell brings extraordinarily creative insight to his
work. His is a rare breed of genius that operates in
several cultural modes simultaneously.
Roman was initiated into pottery as a student at Aldous
Huxley’s Happy Valley School in Ojai, California. At age
17 Roman emerged from nowhere to win critical acclaim
and professional honors at the Westwood Sidewalk
Festival (UCLA). While still a teenager, the young
prodigy acquired a formal grounding in the art of
pottery from his sole teacher, Jean Campbell. The
Japanese potter Hamada and American painter Jackson
Pollock were the two chief influences in Roman’s
development as an artist.
Roman Hubbell first saw the Hawaiian Islands in 1970 on his
arrival to teach pottery making at Oahu’s North Shore
Environmental Center.
In 1971, his international reputation scarcely begun, Roman
was invited to Scotland to instruct in the pottery and
artistic expression at the original Findhorn Foundation.
He returned to the US in 1973 to teach and work at the
prestigious West Los Angeles Potters Studio.
In 1974, anxious to devote more time to his own art, Roman
left to open a private studio in kinetic Malibu,
California. His works of this period, primarily custom
design pieces, are found today in elegant homes and
private collections of the West Coast’s most prominent
art patrons. Included among notables claiming one or
more of Hubbell’s works are Laurent Brown (Landscape
Architect), Jess Stearn (Author), Taylor Caldwell
(Author), Mr. And Mrs. John Lilly, Edna Cox (Interior
Designer), Frank Tajlan (Film Director), Steve McQueen
(Actor), Ali McGraw (Actor), Katherine Ross (Actor) and
Richard Marin (Actor/Comedian).
In late 1978, Roman abandoned the frenetic intensity of Southern
California scene to establish a studio on Maui. Amid the
visual delights of the Valley Isle, Roman found an
artistic atmosphere highly receptive to new creative
energies drawing from both West and East.
Early in Roman’s Maui career he was instrumental as a
co-founding member of The Pacific Whale Foundation in
ushering in the Maui Whale Sanctuary. This whale
sanctuary allowed students of marine biology a hands on
experience in collecting data in the water. His
collective fundraising with Greg Kaufman, president of
Pacific Whale Foundation and marine photographer, is
where he pioneered sculptural forms such as High Buff
silicon bronze with a special turquoise patina (First
Breath, Out Of The Blue, etc…), now common among the
artists in galleries though out the islands today.
In 1984 Roman was invited to show his works with foremost
marine artists Robert Nelson, George Sumner, Richard
Pedit and Bruce Turnbolt at the Maui Marine Expo held in
the Intercontinental Hotel.
Roman’s work was shown through the late eighties at Lahina
Gallery on Front St. and Village Gallery on Dickinson
St. in Maui.
In the early nineties Roman retreated to his studio to do
exclusively commission work. Commissions included works
for Cecil Kilgore (Engineer), Robert Nelson (Marine
Artist), Gary Busy (Actor), Heinz Gerner (Restaurateur),
Lahina Yacht Club and Mr. And Mrs. White (Emerald Bay,
Tahoe). His only show during this period was for The
Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament
(Palm Springs, 1995).
Roman
has been living on Kaua’i for the past eight years
retuning to his roots as a potter. Here he has
discovered that “pottery is a gift, a gift when thrown,
a gift when it comes off the potters wheel, a gift when
it’s glazed and fired and completes the circle as a
gift.”
Roman in now ready to romance the clay for another 35 years
of blending the simple and the Majestic. “Kaua’i blesses
us,” Roman has said, and with the rhythms of his
potter’s wheel, the artist is returning the blessings. |
