Carl McConnell was born in Chicago and studied at art schools in Chicago, Dallas, Texas and Memphis. He travelled to Queensland during service with the US Navy in World War Two (1943–46). In 1948, McConnell returned to Brisbane with his Australian-born wife Bernice (‘Bunny’) and enrolled at the Central Technical College. He held various positions at the college, lastly as an instructor in sculpture and pottery (1971–74), and was an inspiring and generous teacher.

McConnell was influenced by the English and Japanese traditions exemplified by Bernard Leach and Hamada Shōji, who shared a studio in the English town of St Ives, in Cornwall. In 1977, McConnell explained that Leach’s A Potter’s Book (1940) had ‘made it possible for me to transition from earthenware to stoneware and later to porcelain’.

In the 1950s, McConnell began to make stoneware, which fires at a higher temperature than earthenware and is more robust. He went on to produce some of his best work in the medium after establishing his studio in Brisbane’s Pinjarra Hills in 1958. Made just before McConnell relocated, Vase 1957 is an example of the compelling effects he achieved by contrasting glazes and stains.