Originally trained as a painter he took up pottery in the 1950s working originally with Alan Caiger-Smith at Aldermaston Pottery. Geoffrey Eastop – Flightless birdSince setting up on his own in the 1960s Eastop has made handbuilt organic vessel forms in low-fired stoneware. After 1969 he had a long and fruitful collaboration with the painter, John Piper producing brightly decorated ceramics. He has also made a number of large-scale architectural murals.
The form was thrown in three parts using a porcelain body strengthened with molochite. It has painted decoration using coloured slips (liquid clay). Such forms are reminiscent of the exuberant decorative ceramics of the modernist tradition coming through from Picasso, William Newland and John Piper.