Painter David Bromley and potter Robert Gordon launch art-inspired homewares for Myer

Earlier this week, those strolling outside Myer’s city windows were confronted with a very Melbourne sight: not only were the windows filled with a new ceramics range representing a collaboration between potter Robert Gordon and artist David Bromley, but amongst the creamers and platters with butterflies and birds on them stood Bromley himself, peering out at passersby as they snapped their iPhones at him.

It was all part of celebrating a collection that features fifty pieces, ranging from as little as $9.95, with curated installations at Myer Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. 

Those with an eye for detail would have noticed something written in Bromley’s signature scrawl: a declaration that pottery had saved his life. How so?

“I was a very mixed up young guy,” he explains, “And I went from being top of the class at school to a high school drop out at 14. I made so many stupid mistakes. I had a lot of problems.

“But I reached a stage in my life – at 24 – when I decided the key to good mental health was to be purposeful and committed.

“I’d moved to live next to my favourite surf break, and one day at the market I saw a woman standing in front of a pottery store. I asked her how to do it, and she told me where a class was. After the first lesson or two, I was like ‘This is it.’” 

https://vimeo.com/385947080/761ca224dc

Although pottery didn’t stick, art did, and Bromley has become well known for his nostalgic paintings, colourful butterflies and metallic nudes. Around six years ago, he became acquainted with famed potter Robert Gordon, and both say the working relationship was a symbiotic one.

“There are similarities between David and I,” Gordon says. “Both of us are oriented to making products that people want to buy, and that they appreciate…it was easy to work with David, and it was also good fun.”

Bromley has long since stopped caring whether the art critics value or dismiss his work; all he knows is that people keeping loving and buying it. “I always loved nostalgia, and that was seen as lightweight,” he says.

“I liked feel-good imagery, and that was seen as lightweight. I’m lucky that I never bought into that. Thirty years ago, they used to call me ‘flavour of the month’ and it would terrify me because I wanted to do this forever. Time will tell.

“I think, when you’re long gone, the matrix will be what it will be. But I don’t overthink it. I love music, and I’ll go and see someone like The Pogues and you think, ‘God, those guys are having fun.’ That’s what I’m like when I’m in the studio: I turn my music up and the whole world disappears. I think I’m guilty of having too much fun.” 

Gordon’s rags-to-riches tale has some parallels: he never envisioned he would be continuing the craft that had been taught to him by his parents and grandmother, nor that his children would be continuing his business.

In the late 70s, he was selling his wares on St Kilda Esplanade at their Sunday marketplace. He had no formal training, and remembers something that one of his employees – who did have qualifications – told him. “He said, ‘I thought your pots were terrible, but I couldn’t believe how you sold them!’ If you put personality into everything you do, somebody relates to it. I think David is the same.

“The fact of the matter is that people buy his work and they love it. We leave a bit of ourselves in everything we make. It’s not about technique… When you aim for perfection, it becomes a little boring.”

Robert Gordon X Bromley & Co tableware collaboration is exclusive to Myer.

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