From the beginning my twin passions were drawing and horses and my hero was Leonardo da Vinci. I dreamed of becoming an artist living in wooded foothills with clear flowing water at my doorstep and horses grazing all around.
I hated the confines of school and was a disruptive student except during blissful art classes. I took A level art two years early and failed all my O levels except English language but miraculously that got me to Walthamstow College. There, drawing was regarded as the first essential. I was enthralled and excelled. I went on to the now famous Goldsmiths College in London where sadly, at the time, figurative work was unfashionable. There was a life room, and models too, but no tutors ventured near. They liked and encouraged (typically) 6ft square green canvases with triangles and circles in bold clashing colours and sculptures using planks and blocks of polystyrene.
At the end of the first year I was asked to leave the course. I was told that I did not have the stuff that painters were made from and, if lucky, I might scrape a place somewhere to do graphics. My confidence was shattered. I was not interested in graphics. I liked the country, painting and constructing things from what lay around.
But that was then, and I went on to achieve my dream by virtue of fate, the generosity of others, luck and determination. I went my own way, not always wisely and not always to accolade from the establishment. I began with painting equestrian commissions and my accuracy easily commanded high prices. Ultimately however I found it restricting, I sorely felt the lack of a degree. I was lost and without a style of my own.
I sought advice from Arthur Giadelli, an artist of international standing with a well-deserved reputation for also being a gifted teacher. He told me to go and look at a hedge and draw not what I saw but draw what made a thorn a thorn. And never stop working with horses but find a way to make them mine. I am forever in his debt.
I knew that to exhibit prematurely would be unwise; I had to wait until I had unequivocably found what I was seeking. So I continued with commissioned work while also experimenting. Then out of the blue it came in on the tide. Driftwood. It was like a thunderbolt and I was finally ready to show my work to the world. It was driftwood horses.
The rest is history and for a fuller account you will have to wait for my autobiography. If you can’t wait for that try my first book Heather Jansch’s Diary a life in the year of...
Exhibitions
2009
Goodwood.
Open Studio and Sculpture Gardens.
2008
Love London Recycled, London Zoo.
Open Studio.
Sculpture garden features in NGS Open Gardens Yellow Book.
2007
Open Studio.
Artist in residence solo installation Arte Sella Borgo Valsugana. Italy www.artesella.it
2006
Open Studio developing sculpture garden and trail.
Artist in residence Arte Sella Italy.
2005
Open studio.
Newby Hall Yorkshire life-size works mixed show.
2004
Open Studio.
London Contemporary Arts Fair.
Paris. Jardin du Luxembourg Life-size works.
2003
First Open Studio at my place, Sedgewell Coach House. Devon.
Mixed show The Garden House, Wrexham Life-size works.
Eastnor Castle Mixed show Life-size driftwood works.
The Royal Albert Museum Exeter.
2002
Dartington Cider Press October/November small bronzes.
Solo show Courcoux and Courcoux Stockbridge .
Open Studio. Development of woodland trail and gardens, sound installations, temporary and permanent site-specific installations.
Mixed show The Foal Yard. Cambridge. June small bronzes.
Salisbury Cathedral. “In Praise of Trees”. Mixed show.
Art Parks International Sausmarez Manor Guernsey.
London Contemporary Arts Fair.
South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts, mixed show.
2001
London Contemporary Arts Fair.
Solo exhibition Saltram House NT Plymouth.
Solo show Dartington Cider Press. Bronzes.
Artist in residence. The Eden Project. Cornwall. Driftwood sculptures for the Warm Temperate Biome and ongoing research and development.
2000
Solo show Courcoux and Courcoux Stockbridge.
Sculpture in the Gardens Cotehele NT Cornwall. Life sized works.
1999
Mixed show “The Shape of The Century-One Hundred Years of British Sculpture”. Canary Wharf London.
Artist in Residence Newbury Spring Festival.
Artist in Residence Appledore Arts Fair.
1998
Artist in Residence Appledore Arts Fair.
Solo show Saltram House NT Plymouth.
Solo show Courcoux and Courcoux Stockbridge.
Mixed show “Procession” Devon Guild of Craftsmen.
1995
London Contemporary Arts Fair.
1993
Solo show Seymour Gallery Totnes paintings and sculpture.
1991
Solo show Dartington.
1990
Solo show Theatre Mwldan Cardigan.
1989
Solo show Courcoux and Courcoux Salisbury.
Bath Arts Fair.
London Contemporary Arts Fair.
1987
Solo show Devon Guild of Craftsmen Driftwood Sculptures.
1986
Solo show Classics Gallery Devon.
1984
Solo show Plough Theatre Torrington, painting and sculpture.
1981
Moved to Devon. One-Year Sabbatical.
1970
Moved to Wales. Traditional equestrian portraits in oils and watercolours to commission only.
1968
Various illustrative work, album covers and books etc.
Trained in Fine Arts at Walthamstow and Goldsmiths College London.
Born a Leo Essex 1948.