Walking into John Roy's bright airy workshop that overlooks a lush garden it's easy to see how the potter is inspired whilst shaping clay.

Ceramic birds, figures of Uncle Sam, Bottle Men – some etched with brick patterns others littered with purposeful holes – line shelves and stands of the workshop in his Matua home.

Aside from one pottery wheel littered with clay scraps, it is a very tidy space for an art form involving earth.

John has been working with clay since he was a teenager; he attended Tauranga Boys' College and studied fine arts at Whanganui Polytechnic in 1997.

The artist enjoys clay because 'you can make whatever you want to make”.

John is most well-known for his iconic Bottle Men that he's been making for longer than he can remember. Figures and faces feature heavily in his works.

The potter's piece titled Glare, comprising of three connected people, is currently on display at Te Uru gallery in West Auckland as part of the 2021 Portage Ceramic Awards.

'Glare is part of an ongoing series, most of my stuff feels like one big series,” says John.

Although he is coy about the inspiration for the piece.

'I don't usually go too much into the story with each piece because it limits it,” he says.

'People bring all sorts of stuff to art when they look at it.

'If you say one thing, it can only be one thing, rather than people bringing their own reading to it.”

John is one of 30 finalists out of 226 entries and his piece Glare, alongside 32 other works, make up the annual Portage Ceramic Awards exhibition, which is at Te Uru until February 27.

The ceramicist has been a finalist in the Portage awards a dozen times and has received a merit and honourable mention in the past.

His work is held in a number of public collections including: Tauranga Art Gallery, Waikato Museum, Auckland War Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, the James Wallace Arts Trust collection and the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui.

Some previous awards include the Premier Award at the New Zealand Society of Potters Exhibition in 2004 and the Supreme Award at the Waiheke Ceramics Award also in 2004, but John doesn't create to win awards.

He says if there's a piece he thinks will work for an award he'll put it to one side and move on to his next piece.

'I'm just potting along. I try not to get too personally attached to anything.

'I'm more interested in what I'm going to make next than dwelling too much, because anything can happen. It can break or crack in the firing,” he says.

'I think most artists are more interested in what they're going to make next than what they have made.”