Pen and ink and wash drawing, 'A Well of Light', by Ian Potts. Great Britain, 1982.

Pen and ink drawing entitled 'A Well of Light'.

Purchased with funds from the Sir Duncan Oppenheim Gift, 1982.

Exhibited at Moria Kelly Fine Art, London, 1982.

Ian Potts was born into a mining family in Birtley, County Durham. At seventeen he went to Sunderland School of Art from there he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools. In 1958 he won RA silver medal for painting and a subsequent travel award enabled him to attend the British School at Athens. Potts' continued to travel throughout his early career, visiting Italy, Egypt, France and Spain.

From 1963 until he retired in 1995, Potts worked in the fine art department at Brighton School of Art, becoming an was course leader and eventually deputy head of the Fine Art Department. He was responsible for assembling a talented team of staff at the School, which included Antony Gormley, Dennis Creffield, Brendan Neiland and Madeleine Strindberg. He also taught a number of prominet artists, including Turner Prize winner Rachel Whiteread.

Potts work as a lecturer was combined with his practice as a painter. His watercolours were shown regularly at the Royal Academy summer show and in 1998 he was commissioned to paint Windsor Castle by the Duke of Edinburgh's office.

This black-and-white pen, ink and wash drawing belongs to a series of works made by Potts in the early 1980s, showing the stone quarries at Carrara, in Tuscany, Italy. The series draws on the artist's roots as the son of a mining family and remain some of Potts most powerful works.

Ian Potts was born into a mining family in Birtley, County Durham. At seventeen he went to Sunderland School of Art from there he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools. In 1958 he won RA silver medal for painting and a subsequent travel award enabled him to attend the British School at Athens. Potts' continued to travel throughout his early career, visiting Italy, Egypt, France and Spain. This drawing belongs to a series of works made by Potts in the early 1980s, showing the marble quarries at Carrara, in Tuscany, Italy.

P.48-1982