Category: Sculptor

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.

‘Andy’s relationship with his work is both passionate and profound. His approach to the work offers a conduit which puts him in direct connection with the source power creator. As wild a claim as this sounds in words, in practice this is a reality. All of the four elements are utilised when creating his work – Earth, Air Fire and Water. Add to this mix the physical material of the bronze and stainless steel, and magic happens !!His artworks are not implied, not an impression of, you are witnessing the smoking barrel of the event.Each piece is a testament of the physical creation of positive energy.’

“Look at my artworks with fresh eyes as pure energy, and will see it for what it truly is.”

Andy Hopper is a British born Sculptor and Master Blacksmith who specialises in hot-forging & forming of high-grade bronze and stainless steel. Creating beautiful artworks which can be enjoyed in the home as a statement piece, or equally suited in a more natural environment outside.

Born in 1973 in London, Andy now lives and works in Dorset England, where his purpose built studio is located.

He has won numerous awards and received international acclaim for his work. Most notably the highly prestigious Tonypandy Cup, awarded by The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths in 2014, whom also awarded him Fellowship in 2017.

He has held Master-class forging demonstrations and lectures in bronze forging both in England and at the Memphis Metal Museum, USA.

From a very early age Andy was keenly observant of line and proportion. This concern and fascination of form metamorphosed across a variety of mediums before finally being expressed solely in metal.

As well as having an enduring passion for photography, he was a keen fine artist during his teenage years being very influenced in particular by the work of Francis Bacon and Henry Moore. He expressed this through his oil paintings and sculptures. These mediums allowed some intense works during this period.

Analytical by nature, Andy is passionately fuelled and deeply inspired the elemental forces of physics and mathematics, which is arguably the language of the Gods. It is the study of the behaviour of those forces in our Universe which Andy finds truly engaging.

Now, as an accomplished Master Blacksmith, he combines and harnesses the almighty energies of extreme heat and explosive force, coupled with complete freedom of process to manipulate the materials of bronze and stainless steel in a fluid and controlled way.

A wonderful and skilful use of mathematics, hot physics, and an emotional relationship with the artwork being created.

After completing a DipAD in Sculpture 1970.  Andy made his first visit to Carrara in Tuscany. During the 1970s Andy spent many months there carving the marble. Andy’s work can be found in private collections.  In Milan the Museu Pagani. In Tokyo the Art Planning Studio and Fuji Television and in Denver USA to name a few. Andy shows very rarely as showing is not his priority.  He does, however, like to sell his work to a willing buyer.

Currently Andy produces small bronzes in his foundry in Leyton and continues to carve marble at his studio in Normandy.

It is difficult to sum up Andy’s influence on sculpture of the last 30 years.  Suffice to say that during the eighties his foundry produced all the well known bronzes of the time. He continues to encourage younger artists to learn skills and to share in some of his.  

Find out more at http://andyeltonsculptor.com. 

Ama Menec’s work often covers themes of loss and recovery whether species or Gods, celebrating our man made or naturally recovered populations of Buzzards and Red Kites, the loss of up to 100 species via the Badger Trophic Cascade, or the reclamation of Ancient Gods repurposed to fit our modern times.

Knowing a male God hovering over me would not induce sleep, she has feminised Hypnos to hang over my bed as Hypnia the Goddess of Sleep. Based on a bronze in the British Museum, who had lost a wing in antiquity, hers enfolds the face, a feathery cloak of slumber. 

For more information, visit www.amamenec-sculpture.co.uk and www.facebook.com/Ama-Menec-Sculpture. 

Inspired by the monumental building methods of the industrial age, Alex Devereux employs the shapes and forms that were prevalent in the 19th century, mimicking an industrial style and creating a historical aesthetic within contemporary art. His new series of works titled  ‘Daedalus’ after the mythological Greek inventor and father of Icarus, challenges the concepts of speed, modernity and future by adopting the pioneering attitude of an inventor or entrepreneur.

Using new materials, technology and patination to realise the work, he creates theatrical facsimiles of the past, giving his sculptures a context rooted in the historical, exciting the imagination of what they could have been or why they are there.

Each ‘Daedalus’ individually titled ‘Fire Fly’ after the first class of locomotive on the Great Western Railway followed by the individual locomotive name (eg: Fire Fly Hector), are reminiscent of 1930’s lamps that implied speed whilst being functionally static. However, by losing their functionality they become a transient keyhole looking into a playful idea of the future. Stories are perpetuated by relics of another time that now serve to  entice the imagination. These relics are harbingers of potential futures.

Find out more at www.alexanderdevereux.com.

Kendra Haste is a renowned contemporary animal sculptor working with the medium of galvanised wire.

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1998, Kendra has established a significant reputation in her field with work included in collections world-wide. She is an elected member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, the Society of Wildlife Artists (UK) and a signature member of the Society of Animal Artists (USA).

Public sculptures in the United Kingdom include an elephant at Waterloo Station, London, thirteen works (lions, polar bear, elephant and baboons) at the Tower of London, commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces in 2010 and a rhinoceros at Cannon Hall Museum, Barnsley. Her work is also in the collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming.

“What interests me most about studying animals is identifying the spirit and character of the individual creatures. I try to create a sense of the living, breathing subject in a static 3-D form, attempting to convey the emotional essence without indulging in the sentimental or anthropomorphic.”

Kendra has one piece exhibited at the Cotswold Sculpture Park this year:
North American Brown Bear (Grizzly)
Executed in 2015. 
Steel armature and painted galvanised wire.
54(h) x 84(w) x 44(d) in | 138(h) x 214(w) x 112(d) cm

Kendra’s subject matter concentrates solely on life-sized wildlife and she is available to commission.

For more information, visit Kendra’s webpage, at https://www.patrickdaviesca.com/artists/kendra-haste-mrss/3/overview/ . You can also find her on Facebook, Instagram and Wikipedia.

Beth works intuitively and unconsciously, often on multiple pieces at once, from forged iron or clay sculptures, to collage, photography, printing and drawing. Whatever she is making, the spirit in which she works is always the same: to find and describe the strange, wild and connective elements all around us. She says “I draw on many things for inspiration – personal symbols, the collective consciousness, and the things I see, hear and feel every day.”