Author: Tadd Hartland

PENNY HARDY                                                                                           www.pennyhardysculpture.com

Penny has been creating figurative sculptures for nearly 3 decades, having originally trained as a Scientific Illustrator. Her early illustrative work was for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew where she provided drawings and paintings for their external interpretation boards throughout the gardens.

Whilst working as a botanic illustrator she was intrigued and fascinated by the beautiful structures that nature instinctively uses to survive in their many challenging environments and this lead to an enduring love of architecture that was inspired by these natural forms. She explored many different techniques and ideas to create figurative sculptures that had the same strength and poised energy that she saw in her surroundings, always striving to convey a sense of physical or emotional movement between states.

Penny’s sculptures have been placed in private collections throughout Europe and the US and as far as Australia and South Africa.

Michael Johnson has been making artworks for public spaces since 1991, his first commission, for the Duchy of Cornwall, a 25-foot-high sculptural work in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, won the Birmingham Design Award and has been featured in many publications. He has now completed over 200 commissions for both rural and urban sites throughout the UK and Ireland. Clients range from national institutions, banks, property developers, to local authorities, landscape architects, community groups and schools. He has held a number of Lead Artist positions in large regeneration schemes, responsible for designing the arts input, commissioning other practitioners, and project managing the implementation of the artworks. He was the lead artist for ‘Turning the Tide’; the reinstatement of the East Durham coastline after 150 years of industrial spoil, the scheme won the interpretation of Great Britain award, achieved heritage status and was opened by the Queen in 2002 by the unveiling of one of the artists sculptures.
In 2014 the artist was shortlisted for the Marsh Award for excellence in public sculpture.
In 2020 the Mussel sculpture in Musselburgh won the Civic Award.
Although the Studios output is focused on the larger projects, smaller works, drawings and prints are made to continually feed inspiration for the larger commissions.