Soler, Lucho – Blue Jar with Stylized Birds

Lucho Soler developed as an artist in his native Peru. He fell in love with pottery at age 10 when studying Peruvian history at school. He began making replicas of the pieces he admired from cultures spanning back over 3000 years of Peruvian history. By the time Lucho was a young adult in Lima, he was an accomplished potter, but his quest for knowledge and learning pushed him to leave his country for the United States, where he discovered the celebrated native artists of the Pueblos in New Mexico. There, he became familiar with the works of Maria Martinez and the many talented Native American Pueblo potters who produce some of the finest examples of ceramics in the world today. There, Lucho lived and worked among some of the finest ceramicists, sharing ideas and, in some cases, working together to create unique and splendid creations. Soler has been a professor at the famous Institute of American Indian Art School in Santa Fe, NM. In his native Peru he has taught countless workshops and given classes to young aspiring artists helping them learn about their cultural heritage and letting them find expression in creating something beautiful. The clay that Lucho uses for his pieces, he digs out of the earth himself in the nearby hills. He does not use a wheel. The fine symmetry of the work he does is the result of hand-building using coils of clay carefully added one by one and then shaped using stones, paddles, and tools that Lucho has hand-made himself. The colours found in his pots are all naturally derived from clay and minerals mixed as slips. He does not use glazes, but instead employs the technique of stone polishing his work to produce a mirror-like shine that is completed before the firing process. He uses either his kiln, which he built himself, or fires his pieces in an outdoor wood or cow dung kiln. Finally, he hand-carves his pots if he wishes to add more dimension to his work. The result is a perfectly unique work of art that reflects the ancient history of this amazing country and the passion of its creator.