SCULPTURE

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For me, sculpture is a medium for exploration and investigation. With conceptual sculpture, the medium is irrelevant – it is the idea being investigated that is important. Figurative work is often seen as merely representational.

Representation is an element, of course, but what I am most focused on is the emotional aspect. Whilst making a piece I am consciously trying to explore and understand the emotions I have in response to it. I’m hoping to create a similar dialogue and emotional response from the viewer. This is my concept.

The part of the process I most enjoy is what happens once you’ve mastered the physicality of the clay and the likeness of the model. This is when it really gets interesting.

Anne-Marie has drawn and modelled animals from an early age. She gained a degree in ceramics from Middlesex University in 1992. She went on to set up her studio in the New Forest, where she was inspired by the animals around her.Her travels around the world enabled her to study wild animals first hand, particularly in Africa.Anne-Marie’s more recent work is based on the domestic and wild animals that inhabit the Forest around her studio.Anne-Marie uses a variety of techniques to construct her work including slab building, press moulding, pinching and coiling. Interesting surface textures are achieved by experimenting with rolling the clay on a variety of materials.The pieces are coloured with oxides andunder glazes and fired up to 1200c.Anne-Marie’s work is constantly evolving, she shows her work in Galleries all over England.

Fred Gordon, born in 1993, graduated from the University of Edinburgh in July 2017 with a 2:1 MA (Hons) in French and History of Art, after having done a foundation diploma in Art and Design at Falmouth University. He has always been interested in some form of art and, despite being largely self-taught, Fred has been sculpting professionally since 2011. Determined to pursue a career in wildlife sculpture, he was fortunate to secure a place with Animal Art Fair in London, exhibiting in their summer exhibition. He also took part in the Natural Eye Exhibition for the Society of Wildlife Artists and was, also, thrilled to be asked to take part in the SMA Trust Charity Auction Dinner in the National Gallery, London. Fred finished 2017 exhibiting at the Art for Youth London exhibition at the Mall Galleries and was awarded the much coveted Wates Foundation Diana Brooks Prize for new and emerging talent.

Having lived in the countryside all his life, Fred was exposed to and inspired by the natural world from an early age. To begin with, he primarily used drawing as a way of capturing the essence of his subjects. However, in 2011, influenced by his mother, he turned to sculpture, as he could better articulate the intricacies of the anatomy, and the movement inherent in the wildlife he observed. Fred uses quick and fluid gestures to capture the motion and vitality of the subject. Working first in clay or wax, the piece is then cast in bronze or bronze resin.

Born in Warwickshire, I moved to the West Country, firstly to read European Studies at The University of Bath in 1981 and latterly, in 1994, to set up home with my family in The Chew Valley, where I remain to this day, having done a stint in London.

For the past ten years my focus has been sculpting, which I happened upon when I agreed to accompany a friend on a ceramics course for one afternoon a week at The Bristol School of Art. I was instantly hooked and have not looked back. Interest in my work grew and I began to start selling my pieces.

I am obsessed with clay. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by it, digging it up from the fields when I was young and making things that rapidly fell to pieces. It is the only material I know that only needs hands to shape it.

Despite no formal opportunity to train in ceramics, I have always continued to make things out of clay.

Each piece I make is entirely hand built. The animal sculptures include British wildlife, farm animals, dogs and cats. I also make other animals found further afield, such as rhinos, leopards or elephants. Apart from the ceramics, my work is available in Bronze resin and foundry Bronze..

She constructs sculptures from clay, plaster or wax.

Her tactile sculptures are all hand made in the UK each one an individual.

Michelle has a wide range of ceramic, bronze and Bronze resin sculptures, produced with a variety of glazes and textures.

Working as the Little Paper Factory he creates individual pieces of art using recycled objects, materials and paper. This form of paper art, similar to origami originated in Japan and is known as Kirigami, and is best described as the folding and cutting of paper into decorative shapes. These individual pieces are then mounted in re-purposed objects such as printer trays, wooden boxes or anything else 'vintage' that appeals to the artist. Even the paper is recycled and ranges from old sheet music or newsprint to maps or perhaps the pages from an old copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Everything is individually designed and handmade resulting in truly unique pieces of art.

As a qualified cabinetmaker I have worked with wood since I left school so it was a natural progression to start carving the wildlife I enjoy so much. I use found woods mixed with other woods I have in the workshop/studio at any given time and I finish my work with acrylic paints and waxes. My carvings are what I see and observe in the characteristics of the subject and I do not emulated every detail as I like to add my own interpretation as I carve.

Derek is based near Saffron Walden, Essex.

With two decades of experience as a caster and sculptor, Count Umber specialises in striking, original cold-cast pieces. These are not traditional works of sculpture, but have been designed to be picked up and turned over in the hands. Count Umber pieces are chunky, heavy and elegant. Each work from Count Umber is entirely cast and finished by him. Every single cast is unique, with its own quirks and imperfections.

My work is about the beauty, infinite complexity and preciousness of life and the delicate balance between chaos and order. My inspiration is drawn from the likenesses between microcosmic and macrocosmic forms such as subatomic particles and planets.

Each sphere is produced by eye and hand, often from rare and precious materials. I feel peaceful, meditative processes are ideal and choose hand tools whenever possible. 

Many of these works take years to complete, as some media must be seasoned and finishing processes can require months of curing. Some have been stored for over a decade, in order for the desired patina to develop.

Often they include hidden elements, which usually have a property that makes them attractive to interact with. Under the right circumstances I like to encourage people to explore, even to play with my work.

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I work with very simple images that come from our tribal past, when rock art was all we had between us and the wolf. Iconic animals - horses, deer, foxes, ravens - are woven into our folklore, and our collective unconsciousness.

We have a strong culture attached to the horse, and I've followed the thread of horses all my life, painting them and working with them, alongside a professional career in dentistry.

In 2005 I gave up the dental practice to focus on art. Working in ceramics I've found interesting parallels between the technical challenges of glazes and firing and my early training in material sciences.