The ceramicist Gro Suvatne (b. 1965) works with porcelain and stoneware. She is originally from Kristiansand. She lives in Møre og Romsdal, but she has a ceramics workshop both at Myren Gård in Kristiansand and in Romsdalen near Åndalsnes. She is fascinated by surfaces created by various burning techniques such as raku and wood-burning, where the firing adds something unique to the works. She explores the clays amazing possibilities; from the plastic to the hard, durable, and all the different expressions you can get through different types of clay, surface treatments and burning techniques. She is educated as a teacher Cand. Mag. in fine arts at the Norwegian National College of Teachers and teacher at Kristiansand Teachers College.
Suvatne is one of very few artisans in Norway who owns an anagama stove. Anagama is a Japanese expression meaning hollow furnace. An anagama furnace is tunnel-shaped and fired with wood and consists of a firing chamber with a firebox at one end and a chimney at the other. Firewood produces fly ash and volatile salts that form natural glaze on the objects. This ash glaze utilizes Suvatne to create variations in the color and texture of its ceramic objects. The process of filling, firing, cooling, and emptying an anagama furnace takes several weeks and requires several teams of skilled staff, continuous monitoring, and enormous quantities of firewood. The orange colour of the sea anemones, sold in Art Gallery Linn, are natural flame markings while the grey/green sections are affected by different amounts of ash (carbon capture). Gro Suvatne has expertise as a project manager for the construction of anagama furnaces.
Suvatne has captured the sea anemone's graceful movements where its body and tentacles follow the eddies of the waves. Sea anemones are skeleton less, magnificently coloured, and of considerable size (tropical up to 60 cm in diameter). Most attach themselves to the surface with the help of a foot disc and can slowly move along.
The nature around her often characterizes her expression. She works both with use-related things, and with sculptural expressions. She uses a lot of porcelain, casts, and explores patterns, ornaments, and translucency. The inspiration for Suvatne's objects comes from sea life and shapes from the sea. She is also inspired by life in the mountains. Suvatne lives in Rauma municipality on the border with Reinheimen National Park. In the summer of 2023, she is approaching impressions from her local area in the mountains that will hopefully manifest in clay.
She is educated as a teacher Cand.Mag. in fine arts at the National College of Teachers and at Kristiansand Teachers College. Suvatne's art has been purchased by, among others, Drammen Museum, the Norwegian Royal House, and Vest-Agder County Council. In addition to participating in many solo and group exhibitions, she has also delivered several public commissions. She is a member of the Norwegian Association of Arts and Crafts NK, a Norwegian Organization of Artisans. Suvatne has been a board member of Agder Kunstsenter for 3 periods. She is currently a board member of Møre og Romsdal Art Centre.