Category: Sculptor

Will Spankie
Will studied sculpture at Sir John Cass and Central St Martins Art schools
in London. Since then he has been working as a self-employed stone carver
and letter cutter. He makes stone sculpture and lettering for public art
commissions, as well as working with garden designers and clients on a more
domestic scale for gardens and interiors.  He also teaches stone carving in
schools, adult education colleges and prisons.
He works predominantly in local Jurassic limestones which can withstand an
English winter. His work is concerned with natural forms, patterns, symmetry
and the unfolding of numbers in space. He tries to capture the ambiguity and
ephemeral nature of life in the permanence of carved stone; he also enjoys
working collaboratively with people to help them realise their own projects
and ideas.

I want my paintings to be felt as much as remembered. They should leave an internal mark on the emotions as much as on the memory’

Adele Riley is a British contemporary land and seascape artist working primarily in acrylic and acrylic inks. Her artistic process usually begins with a loose idea of what she wants to create. She strives to capture the emotional content of the subject, letting the inks create a type of chaos by doing what they naturally want to do. ‘This is an exciting part of the process,’ says Adele, ‘As it always reveals something magical, letting me know what I should do or how I should react next.’ 

Adele is fascinated by light and colour, believing people connect to colour just as much as to the subject matter. People are drawn to different energies in different colours, and she loves to play with this theory in her work.

She often starts her paintings ‘plein air’, sometimes in local forests or on the beaches of Cornwall and Devon, but her passion is to paint intuitively, recalling the light, atmosphere, sounds and feel of a scene. ‘My aim is to capture the essence of a place rather than produce a literal interpretation. I want to create a personal and emotional narrative between my work and the viewer.’

‘With light there is always colour. I constantly chase light, it’s all consuming. I paint quickly, it’s the only way I can paint an honest painting, nature and light are so transient that it has to be quick. I work on as many as 9 pieces simultaneously, enabling me to paint in many layers and washes with fluidity. This helps keep expression and movement and creates a sibling connection due to the palette used between all the paintings. It’s the only way I can work.’

Adele trained in Design and Illustration at Epsom School of Art.

She has exhibited in Brick Lane London, Cheltenham, Goodwood and The Affordable Art Fair in Battersea.  Her works can be found in galleries in Oxfordshire, Surrey and Gloucestershire. She has been featured in Artist and Illustrator Magazine, Homes and Gardens and Vanity Fair, as well as New Artist and FLUX magazines. In 2021 she took up her first residency at the Cotswold Sculpture Park in Gloucestershire.

Adele’s works are proudly displayed in private collections around the world.

‘When I paint, I don’t necessarily want to paint the subject, just the enormity of what I feel’

Marian was born, raised and educated in the Philippines.  Her artistic journey began early in life, mostly through drawing and painting.  But other interests developed through the years and put this adventure on hold.

​Eventually the right time came to resume the journey, so Marian enrolled in a couple of art classes.  One of which was “Sculpting in Clay”.
 
Using clay as a medium of expression or communication was love at first touch.  Clay is pliable, forgiving and unpredictable.  Unpredictable because sometimes it can direct your work onto a different path. 

Clay is also a teacher – one learns to be pliable, forgiving and open to possibilities.
 
Much of Marian’s work is figurative and inspired by the rich culture of the Philippines.  This could be transforming a word, like “yakap”, into something tangible and tactile or expressing the one-ness between a couple with “kabiyak ng puso”.  

 Marian: “It is hoped that my sculptures would spark your curiosity and make an emotional connection.  It is a pleasure to share them with you.”

Brief Biography Masoud Akhavanjam

Born in 1969 in Tehran, Iran, Masoud Akhavanjam was sent to Boarding School in Marburg Germany, at the age of 14. In 1989 Akhavanjam moved to the United States and attended the George Washington University, receiving a degree in Biology in 1995.

In 2005 he received an Executive MBA degree from the Kempten University of Applied Science in Germany. From 1997 to 2011 Akhavanjam managed the Design Department at his family’s Iranian manufacturing company for household appliances. During his high school years he took a sculpture class to make ceramic sculptures. He made hundreds in the 80’s, some of which were sold. Later with the knowledge he had gained through the manufacturing and the interest he always had in sculpture, he established his own workshop, making his first bronze sculpture in 2011.  

* Solo exhibitions  
2019 Art Marbella, Spain, presented by Toro Art Gallery, Italy  
2019 Homo Sapiens, Khak Gallery, Tehran, Iran 
2016 Path of Life, Shirin Gallery, Tehran, Iran 
2015 Power, Niavaran Cultural Palace, Tehran, Iran 
2013 Rise, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran 
* Selected group exhibitions 
2021 Cotswold Sculpture Park, England 
2021 ANTHEM – Tremenheere Sculpture Garden , Penzance 
2021 Art Dubai , Khak gallery, group exhibition
2020 les Jardins d’Etretat, France 
2019 Personal Structures, Open Borders, Context Venice Biennale, GAA Foundation, Venice, Italy 
2019 Art Dubai, presented by Khak Gallery, Tehran, Iran 
2017 Personal Structures, Open Borders, Context Venice Biennale, GAA Foundation, Venice, Italy 
2016 Abu Dhabi Art Fair presented by Shirin Gal

A specialist in portraiture and contemporary figurative sculpture, Keziah is inspired by the tenderest moments of human interaction.  Her practise is focused on exploring the intangible qualities of the human experience, rendering private intimacy and fragility in raw clay and bronze.  Her sculptures evoke timeless themes of love, harmony and the search for balance in our lives.

Inspired by her own experiences living with Ehlers Danlos in a fragile body, Keziah’s work seeks to elicit the viewer’s empathy and tenderness, to engage them in connecting with their own place in the wider world, and to refocus them on the innate value of their connections with others and nature. 

Keziah has exhibited across the UK and Germany and has work in collections in the UK, USA, and Europe. Most recently her sculpture ‘Serenity’ was exhibited at the Mall galleries in the Royal Society of British Artists Annual show 2021. Her bronze portrait Tondo of world renowned chemist Rosalind Franklin who identified the double helix structure of DNA, and commissioned for Hampstead Heath Manor, has been selected for the Society of Portrait Artists exhibition this year. 

Notable sitters:
General Susan Ridge first female general in British Military History
Laura Bates celebrated Feminist Author
Menna Fitspatrick MBE and Jen Keho MBE Paralympic Gold medal winning ski Team.  
Mary Beard Cambridge Classicist and author
Hollie McNish Ted Hughes award winning poet
Max McMurdo Designer and engineer

GLENN MORRIS. BA (Hons), P.G.C.E., F.R.G.S.

As a professional sculptor with a keen and active interest in the environment, my work is informed by and concerned with the human relationship with time and the natural environment.
I have spent extended periods of time in the Arctic, travelling and living with the Inuit of Northern Greenland and Arctic Canada. I was also the leader and organiser of the ‘Arctic Voice’ project – an initiative that linked communities throughout the Arctic regions with schools in the UK. This involved an unsupported journey by canoe, kayak and dog sledge of over 3,000 miles. My interest and concern for the environment stems from my work in these regions, when I interviewed Inuit elders and scientists, as part of the Arctic Voice Project.

The times spent in the Arctic have had a profound effect on me and how I view our world and society. I have become acutely aware of the fragility of life and the environment and the tenuous path that humans follow through life. As a result, my work is both inspired and informed by the combination of beauty and harshness of the environment in the far north but perhaps, more importantly, by our relationship and response to the loss of things that possess beauty in any form.

I work predominantly in stone and mixed media using traditional carving techniques to create forms that at first sight appear abstract but are often based on very real encounters in the Arctic, or are informed by my environmental concerns. The forms and works tend to follow two or three lines of exploration: the sensual and feminine, the masculine, industrial form and more objective comments on things environmental.

I have a first-class degree in sculpture and have had work exhibited in public areas and also at the Royal Academy. I am a qualified teacher and spent a number of years teaching pottery. In addition to being a member of Sculpture Cymru, I am also a member of ‘Arts Alive Wales’ and the environmental and not-for-profit artist’s collective ‘Vulgar Earth’

Glens sculptures are available to see here