She studied with him for two years and always considered him to be her principal mentor (1954). After returning to the United States from Japan, in 1956 she married David Leach, the noted British studio potter, whom she had earlier studied with.
After studying pottery at Black Mountain, North Carolina under Shoji Hamada, a visiting artisan, she traveled to Japan to work with him. She was the first foreign woman to study pottery in Japan and only the second westerner. They returned to Great Britain to operate his studio at Saint Ives.
Janet Darnell Leach continued to be influenced by Japanese aesthetic in her pottery and ceramics, and her work has increased in popularity.
In 2006-2007 there was a major retrospective of her work by Tate Street Ives. Janet Darnell was born in Grand Saline, Texas, United States of America, in 1918.
Her colourful early years involved moving to New York to work with sculptor Robert M. Cronbach and becoming involved with Federal Works Art Project. She was briefly married during Second World War and worked in a shipyard, undertaking welding.
Eventually she started work with clay and learned to use a potter"s wheel.
She taught pottery at a mental health hospital in New New York After meeting Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, she gained Hamada"s agreement to work with him at Mashiko after he had returned to Japan. She travelled there in 1958, by cargo boat.
Darnell spent a great deal of time with Bernard Leach and eventually they agreed to marry, initially intending to live in Japan.
However with Bernard"s son David Leach leaving the Leach Pottery to establish his own studio, they returned to England. Janet Leach"s independent spirit ensured that her work was quite different from much of the Leach style.
She never felt the need to pay reverence to her husband"s work, and could be openly critical of lieutenant In return her own work was not always valued within the Street Ives Studio.
Much of it lay hidden for many years.
Clearly influenced by the oriental style and form, her work is free flowing and energetic. Leach"s work has grown in popularity in recent years, particularly helped by the 2006-2007 Tate Street Ives retrospective. Independent"s Obituary by Emmanuel Cooper
Article by Joanna Wason about Janet Leach, Studio Pottery
TATE Street Ives: Janet Darnell Leach, Retrospective Exhibition (2006-2007)
Janet Leach Biography, Aberystwyth University Ceramics Collection
Article on Bernard Leach, includes photo of Janet & Bernard together
Letters from Bernard & Janet Leach to Warren MacKenzie, includes draft article by Janet Leach, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Examples of work
Janet Leach Pots in V&A Collection, London: Vase 1, Vase 2, Vase 3, Vase 4 & Vase 5
Examples of work in commercial galleries
StudioPottery.com
Harlequin Gallery, London
Oakwood Ceramics
Chertavian, Bedding & Smallwood.
