Sculpture Beginnings
In 2012 I visited an exhibition of bronze artwork at the Royal Academy in London. I was fascinated by the complex process of lost wax casting and thought I would see if I could produce a sculpture and have it cast.
I bought some clay and some wire to make an armature, and began making a sculpture of our dog. This method of simply having a go and trying things out meant that I learnt a lot of lessons very quickly about what can go wrong with a sculpture and how to rescue the work.
I maintain the approach today, of simply having a go and learning from my mistakes for future projects.
Athleticism
At the Royal Academy exhibition, I saw one sculpture of horses being ridden that really evoked a sense of dynamism, despite the static nature of sculpture.
As a long time oarsman, I have never seen a good figurative sculpture of rowing. It occurred to me that most sculptures of rowing have been commissioned to celebrate a noted athlete and the sculptor has used photographs of them, or a model sat still in a boat, without the knowledge of what is involved in good rowing.
I decided to use my knowledge from years of rowing as well as my degree in anatomical sciences to see if I could produce sculptures that reflected the efforts involved in rowing.
I take the same approach to all figurative sculptures of sporting poses that I create. I attempt to work out the key physical skills involved to make a realistic representation.
