Graeme Wilkie (1950- ) was born in Melbourne and trained as a potter through the workshop system - becoming Doug Alexander's first full-time student in Creswick, Victoria, in 1971; studying with David Eeles in Dorset, UK, in 1973; working as a production thrower for John Gilbert in Ballarat, Victoria, and setting up his first studio at Lorne, Victoria, in 1975; rejoining Doug Alexander as his assistant in 1976; helping with a range of woodfire kiln building projects in Australia and South America in the late 1970s and early 1980s; and spending time at Joan Campbell's Fremantle Studio in 1982. In 1988, he established a new studio on his Lorne property, calling it Qdos. This has grown to become a significant art venue with gallery, cafe, accommodation and an artist-in-residence program. The studio has a 9 metre long Anagama kiln that is fired twice a year with the help of students and visiting artists. Wilkie specialises in technically challenging woodfire ceramics, often large-scale, sculptural and composite in form.