Kerr’s surfaces and imagery are inspired by the natural physical environment.  The indigenous flora and the ancient eroded landscape of Western Australia inspire his ‘vessel forms’, which seek to express a unique Australian quality, whilst ‘ceramic collage’ pieces reference traditional landscape painting in a craft medium.  The ‘still-life’ works on the other hand, refer to histories of domesticity, the tradition of still-life painting and its associated symbolism.

Bernard Kerr completed his Master of Visual Arts from Curtin University in 1994, and has an extensive background in lecturing at a tertiary level and secondary school teaching and has been on the Syllabus Committee for TEE art at the Curriculum Council for many years. He currently holds the position of Curriculum Leader for the Arts at Scotch College in Swanbourne. He has delivered conference papers at the 7th, 8th  9th, 10th and 11th National Ceramics Conferences and co-ordinated the 9th Conference ‘EDGE’ in Perth in 1999.He has also published several international journal articles concerning Western Australian ceramics alongside regular participation in group exhibitions and his work is held in a number of government, private and corporate collections .