Category: Sculptor

Jane Clift lives in Dartmouth, Devon, where she makes three dimensional wire sculptures.

Largely self-taught, Jane comes from an artistic family and from an early age had exposure to art and music. She focussed on music which she went on to teach. In her early twenties, Jane won a place in the highly acclaimed National Youth Theatre where she appeared in a number of West End plays and a BBC Play for Today. She then toured the country as stage manager for a one man show, including the Edinburgh Festival where they won Best Fringe Award.

Ten years ago, Jane had a serious accident which required a complete skin graft to her right hand and discovered weaving soft wire a fantastic therapy for regaining dexterity. The goal was to play the piano again, but she discovered a new love!

At this time, Jane launched a new business, “A Vintage Garden” and became known for finding unusual pieces of art for the outdoors. She started making wire sculptures for her garden, and very quickly took commissions. The first sculpture she sold, was to another artist. Jane is inspired by movement, grace and humour.

In 2018, Jane became an Associate Member of the Devon Guild of Craftmen and won the “People’s Choice Award” for her sculpture at the Cockington Sculpture Trail in Torquay. For the last two years, she has exhibited at the Contemporary Craft Fair at Bovey Tracey and many other leading art fairs around the country.

Find out more at janeclift.co.uk.

Hilary Cartmel studied Fine Art in Exeter and Nottingham graduating in1980. She began making large timber figures moving into steel within a few years. She has always worked as an artist, completing over 60 commissions for public sites and has works sited from Exeter to London to Edinburgh. She has also exhibited studio work since 1980 showing work across the country from Devon to Aberdeenshire, including The Serpentine Gallery, Tate Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Burghley summer Sculpture show and many others. She lives and works on the border of Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire. In the farmyard which is now artists’ studios for her husband and herself there is also an 18 th century dovecot which has been restored and now functions twice a year as a gallery.

For more information, visit www.hilarycartmel.co.uk

Instagram @hilarycartmel @dovecotgallery

Emma Kemp has always shown an interest in art and the process of making, which led her to live and study in Florence in 2004. She then proceeded to Nottingham Trent University for a Fine-Art degree, during which she acquired a different approach to her practice, exploring interactive and community arts. She continued in this line or work after graduating yet soon began to miss the craft and tactile nature of clay and with this in mind, moved to Bristol in 2010 to focus on figurative sculpture.

Since then Emma hasn’t looked back, as galleries and buyers increasingly take interest in her work. Her work can be seen in galleries around the UK and has been shown internationally at Affordable Art Fairs, as well as showcased at Open exhibitions at the RWA, Bristol and a solo show at Hours space last year.

Emma has also installed some public sculptures around UK, including a bronze figure in front of Amelia Lodge in Henleaze, Bristol. Emma is driven to create sculpture that appeals to the senses and through her work, she explores human experience: from how we feel to how we move, to how we deal with everyday life and the choices we make.

You can find out more at www.emmajeankemp.com.

Dee Stanford is a five-times award-winning artist based in London, who had spent most of her adult life living in Cape Town where she worked on her sculptures and paintings, learning primitive methods and blending them with a more Western approach.

Dee’s work is known internationally and has been exhibited in the UK, USA, Germany, Italy, France, Cyprus and RSA.
One of Dee’s sculptures has been exhibited at MOMA Cyprus and is now on show at the Museum of Louis and Michael Zampelas in Cyprus.

For more information, visit www.deestanford.com.

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.