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Aerospace engineer turned artists Dallas Collins, studied sculpture at the RCA London from 1999-2001. In direct succession, he worked for the RCA for two years and taught sculpture in Chelsea, London, Bristol and Cardiff.

In 2007 Dallas was short-listed for the Jerwood sculpture prize with his work ‘Sweet’ and In 2008 was commissioned by Barratt homes to produce a major large-scale bronze piece ‘Ocular Gate’ for a development in Bristol.

Dallas has had numerous exhibitions and shows throughout the UK, USA and Europe, including work held in several private and public art collections.

In 2009 Dallas helped initiated an artist collective, the group were short-listed to represent Wales at the Venice Biennale in 2011.

In 2016 Dallas joined the RWA as a network artist and in 2018 was selected as an academician and council member of the Royal West of England Academy Bristol.

Find out more at www.dallascollins.com.

Cathy studied graphic design at Bath Academy of Art and then worked for several years as a freelance illustrator.

She has been carving stone now for about 16 years and shows her work in mixed exhibitions in England and Wales.

She uses a variety of different types of stone, and enjoys working with natural shapes and the human form. She also works as a gardener, and most of her sculpture is suitable for garden settings.

Suffolk-based Brian Alabaster MRSS is one of the country’s leading figurative sculptors. His work, produced mainly in bronze, comprises portraiture – particularly of children – as well as natural life and objects. All of his sculptures are modelled from life. Finished pieces are to be found in private and public collections.

Brian finds his inspiration from a variety of sources: the countryside, natural rock or fossil formations and ancient classic ceramics. But it is his love of the human form that has produced, and continues to inform, his most favoured and most collected works. A father of three sons, the earliest of his sculptures featured his own children, and these have remained constant favourites both of the artist and his audience.

Brian undertakes every stage of production himself, from modelling the clay maquettes to the final casting in molten metal.

Artist statement:
The pieces on show in the Cotswold Sculpture park have been completed recently. They both rely on my carrying out the casting process myself, as much of the final work is done in my foundry. I like to leave some marks and evidence of all these processes showing in the finished work. Marks and changes are made at every stage and a deliberate decision is made to keep some evidence of this. I am trying to get some feel in the bronze of the living moving vital body. This body of work is made out my desire to represent the human form and say something more than I can achieve in my more figurative work. Both pieces are shown as numbered editions of six however all will differ slightly one from another. 

 The standing figure of Honor in bronze was inspired by a renaissance painting that I saw many years ago. I have been interested in the effect different treatment of cloth and clothing has on out response to a work. Wrapping of women’s bodies might be associated with control but has also been used in portrayals of female warriors. Also I wanted to contrast the defiant assertive powerful stance and gaze of the model with her deliberately revealing one breast. The balance of power between subject and audience is something I am playing with here.

The large head in bronze was completed in the autumn using as inspiration my regular life model Gee. This was following up on a series of drawings and smaller maquettes. I have made larger than life pieces for public sculpture but this is the first time I have made a head at four times life size. 

For more information, visit www.brian-alabaster.com.

 

Brendon Murless is a contemporary figurative sculptor based in Dorset.

Brendon creates sculptures for both indoor and outdoor settings, which range from small mantle piece sized to large scale garden sculptures. He takes inspiration from the human form, looking at the complexities of what makes us human physically and emotionally. Brendon portrays this by exploring the body in different forms, poses and materials.

His sculptures are either unique pieces or are limited editions and combine the understanding, knowledge and love of a vast range of materials and techniques in bronze, copper, wood, stone and resins.

For each piece of new work he will start with an idea, but is open to continual exploration of materials to marry them with the desired form. The material informs the shape and finish that the final piece takes.

After studying visual arts and 3D design Brendon continued to develop a passion and knowledge for sculpture, materials and the human form. Over the years he has secured a wide variety of commissions from private and public clients, with work in galleries and collections across the country.

Find out more at www.brendonmurless.com.

Having grown up in The Lake District, Bill was surrounded by a landscape that ultimately shaped and inspired his life. His enjoyment of nature and the natural elements has continued to stimulate and inspire in equal measure, and this is reflected in his work. As a teenager he developed his skill in drystone walling on an upland sheep farm, in the Howgill Fells, Cumbria. The sense of accomplishment, and understanding that the walls would be there for generations to observe, instilled his daily work with pride and passion.

His next 20 years were spent designing and creating beautiful gardens and landscapes throughout the south of England. Primarily working with stone, undertaking projects in locations as diverse as The Royal Crescent in Bath, to a Neolithic Burial Mound within a World Heritage Site in Wiltshire.

The weather and its effect on the landscape continues to influence his work, understanding how weathering and time can enhance natural materials, particularly rock. Bill has climbed 6000m in the Himalayas, explored the Artic wilderness, and more recently spent time in the Atlas mountains in Morocco – rocks and landscapes continue to thrill and excite him.
He works from a studio at home, central Wiltshire, located on the edge of Salisbury Plain. The tranquil landscape surrounding our home provides the perfect environment to create his work.

Ben Dearnley is a sculptor based on the wild west coast of Wales. 

Ben’s works are an exploration of the figure. The narrative he creates fuses techniques of the sculpture masters of the past with the best natural materials while using a contemporary approach. He draws the viewer into a personal dialogue with the sculpture by bringing out the spirit of the figure within, reflecting the inner truth of the material.

His work is in The Royal Academy of Music, London, and in private collections around the world.

With large public commissions in the cities of Bath and Bristol, and corporate clients such as British Telecomm, Aviva and Bacardi, Ben has gained an international reputation for the quality of his work and is a highly collectible artist. 

Find out more at www.bendearnley.com. 

Oxford-based sculptor Beatrice Hoffman creates stylised sculptures of heads, figures and abstract forms in bronze or bronze resin.

With her sculptures Beatrice Hoffman aims to achieve a certain degree of simplicity and abstraction:
” Beauty to me is simplicity, clarity, concentration and must extend beyond decorative prettiness. Beauty is to be able to hold contradictions, tensions and ambivalence – it is a balance kept despite conflict.
I am fascinated by ”strong form”. With both figurative and abstract sculptures, I search for a sense of fullness contrasted with negative shapes; sharp angles between surfaces, juxtaposed with smoothness.”

Some of her ideas for sculptures derive from her other career as an arts educator and therapist, which makes her very aware of the psychological and expressive potential of sculptures:

“I am influenced by C.G. Jungʼs ideas of archetypes and equally by childhood memories of Sunday visits to a catholic church filled with Baroque carvings . I reconnect with the tradition of sculptures seen in places of worship, and work towards a spiritually potent image used in a secular context.

Themes on the interface of mythology, psychology and spirituality – mental states, relationships, human identity, maternal love, and solitude are universal experiences that influence my artwork.

I hope to enable engagement and contemplation: for the viewer to find reflected in my sculptures a feeling, experience or preoccupation, and through this empathy, solace, and understanding derive some healing . “

Beside sculptures for the domestic and garden environment, she has been working on a larger scale (2013-14 as part of an artist-in-residency at the Chenderit School) , suitable for either garden or a more public setting.

She has recently finished a large public sculpture for the main entrance of a hospital, to be unveiled in Spring 2019.

Visit Beatrice’s website, at www.beatricehoffman.co.uk.

Anne Curry is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. She discovered the power of sculpture as a student, while working for a doctorate in Egyptology at Oxford University. “I see in the sculpture of Ancient Egypt the perfect combination of material, line, volume and tension.” Clean lines, pared down details and inner power are the fundamental principles of her work.

She started sculpting in 1989 and was quickly recognised as an accomplished portrait sculptor at home and abroad: her high profile commissions have included the bust of several prominent political figures, including a British Prime Minister, for the Palace of Westminster collection.

At the same time, she started working on large outdoor sculptures based on close observation of organic shapes. Having created an exceptional garden out of bare fields, and worked for years among plants, Anne remains fascinated by the development of natural forms and their patterns. The curves, spiral of growth, the unfolding of leaves and flowers, the bursting of seed pods, all imply controlled movement, a disciplined, mathematical progression and immense internal energy. 

Working on a large scale presents an array of challenges. Anne uses a technique involving the hot carving of vast blocks of polystyrene. The sculpture is then moulded and cast in resin or bronze. These sculptures have been shown in several great gardens in England, including Kew Gardens, at the 2017 Venice Biennale, in France and in the Netherlands. They are in collections on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Far East.

For more information, visit Anne’s website, at annecurry-sculpture.co.uk.

Angela is a professional mosaic artist who co-founded a thriving and successful mosaic studio, TomatoJack Arts in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. She specialises in making mosaic artworks for public spaces, schools and communities as well as teaching mosaic at all levels through weekly classes and one-off workshops.

In Angela’s own artistic practice she likes to explore the linear and architectural qualities of the shapes and patterns found in landscapes, trees and plants. Through the medium of mosaic her work blurs the lines between craft and art by challenging the perceived understanding of what mosaic is in the modern world. 

 

Following studies at Dartington College of Arts near Totnes, and Rolle College of Education, Exmouth, in the 1970s, Angela Holmes set out in search of work and life-style that would unite her interests in art, nature and people. This led to years of working in Camphill Communities together with adults and teenagers with learning disabilities in England and South Africa. While the intensity of daily life didn’t afford time for personal creativity, the strong work morale and inspiring environments fuelled future activity. 

In 1998 Angela began a new chapter, creating “The Clay Door Studio” in Chudleigh, Devon – so called because it has the possibility of opening a door and discovering oneself through art.  Angela unleashed a lot of creativity initially finding expression in stone and more recently in ceramic sculpture.  The apex of her career has been a commissioned stone sculpture for The Rosie Maternity wing at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. 

Angela is a member of South West Sculptors Association, where in the past she was instrumental in liasing exchange exhibitions with Sculpteurs Bretagne.  

She has exhibited widely in sculpture trails and galleries in the south west of England, her most regular venues being Dartington (where she formerly studied); the Mythic Gardens near Chagford;  Delamore Arts, near Ivybridge and The Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey.”

Find out more about Angela at www.angelaholmes.co.uk.