I do not teach but like to help students by making information available. Most people ask the same questions about my work. . . .
If you find after reading this that there are still questions you would like to ask you may email me.
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Where do you find your driftwood and do you do much carving? Where can I see or buy your sculpture? Do you make other animal sculptures? Have you ever made a Pegasus or a Unicorn?
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My goodness what a lot of questions in one go.
My assistants collect driftwood for me from the Devon coast and estuaries, although I have been known to snatch it from the water myself. Local estates supply oak from their woodlands. Sometimes people bring wood that they think might interest me. I do only as much carving as necessary, preferring to retain the original wooden texture.
You can see and buy my horses at my studios and at my new contemporary sculpture gallery in Ashburton. These visits are by appointment only, otherwise my sculpture garden is open to the public free of charge each autumn as part of Devon Open Studios. Keep an eye out for the dates on the News & Open Days section of this website or join my mailing list. As for other animals I do make figures of dancers and I also occasionally make stags and pigs and sometimes dogs. And yes, I have made a sculpture of the most famous flying horse, Pegasus, you can see a bas-relief of it and also a fabulous beast of a Unicorn on the small works page of this site. |
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How do you fix the bits of wood together for your model wooden horses? Do you do other horse art, do you make wall art? | ||
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By whatever method works. Each sculpture is different and can sometimes call for innovative means of construction, I like problem solving, it is part of the fascination and why my interest in this way of working continues. The larger sculptures have a steel frame, in sculptor's terms, an armature, which is then coated with fibreglass to give a roughened surface which both disguises the steel and stops the wood from slipping when it is first held in position by my assistant. It is then tied with wire until I am sure it is right before being screwed together with stainless steel screws. The screw heads are then covered with filler and stain.
My artist's life started as a painter specialising in traditional portraits of horses. They are animals that I find endlessly fascinating, I still paint and also make bas reliefs and drawings and have for sale both originals and (very) limited edition prints. |
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In your equestrian sculpture what are the hooves made from? Do you use horse shoes? | ||
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Recycled copper and sometimes lead, the hoofs are supported by real horse shoes. | ||
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I would like a driftwood sculpture, can they go outside and how long do they last? | ||
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Most of the life-size pieces are made from heart of oak which is a very dense and long lasting wood; they are then treated with preservative to prevent insect attack. I recommend that they be sprayed annually as one would a garden fence. I cannot say exactly how long they will last but there are still a few Elizabethan houses around and seasoned oak is iron hard as any builder who has ever tried to cut it knows. Driftwood sculptures will not last so long outdoors but I have found that using a waterproof New Zealand horse rug in very wet weather lengthens their life, I have some that are now twelve years old and still in sound condition. Bronze of course will last for many centuries. | ||
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Where did you get the idea to make driftwood art? Was it from seeing War Horse? Your work reminds me of the puppets. What is the biggest horse head you have ever made ? | ||
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That's three questions in one. I live not far from the sea in the south west and driftwood always fascinated me. I started making horses from it over twenty-five years ago, long before the stage production of war horse. Like most artistic ideas it came out of the blue and was an accident. The biggest horse I have made so far is a monumental horse's head called 'Fable' which stands about twenty feet tall you can see images of it in the sculpture garden section of this website. | ||
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Do you ever make anything you don’t want to sell? | ||
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Yes and these days I have the luxury of being able to choose what I sell and what I keep. If I really don't want to sell an original I will have it cast in bronze which was not something I could afford at the start of my career. One of my favourite early sculptures was in fact a painted driftwood bas-relief of Pegasus, the famous mythical flying horse of myth and legend. I still have the original but made several others all of which "flew straight off the wall" so to speak, it was, and remains, a strong selling subject. I used a Pegasus for one of the later Bert Jansch Album covers "Sketches." The drawings for his album Moonshine were my favourites although I also enjoyed designing the cover for Birthday Blues and Rosemary Lane. | ||
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Who buys your sculpture, how much does it cost and do you sell drift wood art online? Is it always bespoke sculpture? | ||
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It is hard to say who buys my artwork; it sells world-wide so my clients come from many different cultures but essentially they are all interested in contemporary art. Some buy small bronze horses as gifts, or commission monumental sculptures in either bronze or oak. There is a long tradition of sculpture and statues in large estates, and almost every European town has significant monumental statuary in the form of bronze equestrian horses. Increasingly there is interest in 3D art from both corporate and private collectors world wide. Hotel complexes like to commission contemporary sculpture for their interiors and there is a demand from restaurants for wall reliefs. I never imagined that anyone would buy original art through an online art gallery but to my astonishment nearly all of my sculpture now sells online.
People are always curious about my prices. It is really only the wealthy who can buy or commission bespoke items, and it is the same with sculpture . Most of my clients demand absolute privacy and discretion and I never disclose my prices to anyone but the client.
At the same time I feel passionately that it is important that everyone, whether rich or poor, should be allowed free access to artwork, so I open my sculpture garden to the public each autumn. There is no charge.
It makes for a very cheap family day out, you can picnic by the stream and even in wet weather the average visit is about three hours. There is plenty for the kids to do from treasure trails to lucky dips and wild swings out over the water. Visitors can buy things from as little as fifty pence for a postcard (you can only buy them here, so they are quite rare beasts) For only twenty pounds they can buy a signed copy of my book, Heather Jansch's Diary, which makes a perfect gift for people of any age. For a little more they can buy a print or an original drawing but nobody has to buy anything at all unless they want to. There is no pressure here. |
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Do you make any else apart from horses, do you make other garden art? | ||
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Yes. I make other figurative art, also site-specific constructions and installations. I particularly like landscape design and works that have both an aesthetic and a function. My relaxation often comes from working in my private sculpture garden and landscape where I almost exclusively use recycled materials. I also like working with raw cork, it has a very interesting texture, I used it for the pigs at The Eden Project for the Cork Oak exhibit in the Mediterranean biome. I despise waste and will always look to see how things can be reused before thinking about buying new except for tools. As a result my sculpture garden is now featured in the National Gardens Scheme YELLOW BOOK. | ||
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Do you fit the idea to the material or the material to the idea? | ||
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That's an interesting question and I do both at different times. As a sculpture artist I love problem solving. Working with what there is to hand generally means finding recycled materials and that comes very naturally. | ||
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Do you make small model horses to start with or do you start with drawings of horses? | ||
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Both yes and no, depending on the material. Small models are sculptures in themselves. They are commonly referred to as maquettes. In some cases I prefer to let sculpture grow organically, in others I may follow a drawing to some degree. When I am working with an idea to cast in bronze I tend to do more working drawings. I still like to draw, it is the best way to see clearly and understand form. As a child I always had a pencil in my hands and aged about ten was given the notebooks and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci who immediately became my biggest hero, I was fascinated by all his drawings and sketches, they seem as fresh today as when he made them. | ||
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What materials do you like working with most, bronze or wood? How do you make a bronze from a driftwood sculpture? | ||
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My best work often comes when my creativity is stretched. New challenges, experiments, possibilities and ideas are what keep me alive and I will use whatever material I can find that is interesting. For information on the bronze casting process see the bronze-casting.php page on my Website. | ||
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Why did you decide to become an equine artist and how old were you? | ||
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Love of horses and about three years old. My favourite book was Black Beauty and I was fascinated by wildlife and animal art in general, I loved the drawings in The Jungle Book. I went on to study equines in every way that I could, drawings of horses in the field was paramount but I also read every book about horses that I could find, their behaviour, their ailments. The different breeds and where they came from were things of fascination to me. | ||
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What inspires you? What aspects of the world around you influence your art? | ||
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The fact that I am still alive and human on this planet now is what influences me. At different times I respond differently according to mood, season, location, dream, opportunity, available material, interaction with others, world events...... the list is endless and ever changing. | ||
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How long does it take you to make a horse sculpture? | ||
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That is a bit like asking How long is a piece of string? I have several pieces on the go at the same time so if I get stuck on one I can work on another and often that is how I find the solution to the problem. I have had some that have taken three years and others that have only taken a month but I do not log the hours it takes, that is not what interests me, it is only how well can I make them that concerns me. | ||
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Do you use symbols in your work? |
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Can you see any? | ||
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Does your artwork contain a significant message that relates back to the world of modern society? |
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It is to live as well as you are able to the best of your ability with generosity and compassion. I have no control over what others see in my work because everyone will interpret it differently according to their age, experience, belief system or culture, as they will also interpret anything I may have to say about it. I do try to answer questions in the most straightforward way but my job is really over once a piece is finished. | ||
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Do you create your artworks to evoke a positive reaction from the audience or do you try to challenge their beliefs? | ||
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NEITHER. Personally I believe that the very moment I become concerned about how others might react I have fundamentally lost my way and therefore the artwork is in grave danger of dilution or corruption. I am not a spiritual teacher or a politician and have no interest in attempting to influence others.
Bert Jansch, the legendary folk guitarist, grew to fame precisely because he never worried about what others thought; he also, admittedly, had a vast talent and his music was utterly his own, he gave everything he had to it. I was privileged to witness it first hand. His unique musical genius was recognised and revered by many, many, famous guitarists. I don't think any great artist, from whatever discipline, ever concerned themselves about what others thought. Do you imagine that Leonard Cohen, Miles Davies or Beethoven, to name but a few, worried about what others thought or tried to influence their thinking? No their art was everything to them, everything else came second. |
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How does the audience respond or interact with your works? | ||
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You would have to ask them. How do you respond?
Some people respond by taking photos of my work and producing postcards without seeking permission and without crediting me as the artist, claiming the copyright of the photo and offering them for sale online. I do not tolerate it and if the objects are not immediately removed from sale on notification I will prosecute.
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Do you do horse shows or is that venue beneath you? There seem to be a lot of artists copying you nowadays, what can you do about it?
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I no longer exhibit at horse shows although I did briefly at the beginning of my career over thirty years ago and I enjoyed them very much. A more recent very enjoyable experience was when in 2012 I was invited to show three of my horses at The Darley Stud's stallion Parade at Newmarket. I took a classic thoroughbred, 'Fair Dawn', 'The Young Arabian' a yearling colt, and a fine bronze, the delectable foal 'Sugar Plum'.
These days I only ever sell from my website or my own galleries but I get an increasing number of emails saying my sculpture was seen for sale in a shop or at a horse show or on a blog or website. I also find people using photographs of my work to make commercial postcards without seeking permission or crediting me as the artist, sometimes they even try to claim copyright of the image for themselves!
It is often the case that when people look more closely they can see the qualitative difference between my driftwood sculptures of horses and those made by other artists. Usually the similarities are superficial.
It is wrong to assume that artists working with driftwood or teak are necessarily copying my work although there are cases where the similarity of pose and type of horse chosen make it difficult to believe it happened by chance.
My response is to continue to raise the quality of my work as high as I am able and keep experimenting.
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I can tell you can draw. What beautiful gestural lines the driftwood provides. I came across your website by entering “wooden horses” as I wanted to see if anyone else is currently doing what I have planned after I retire a second time after returning to teaching for 5 years. Your work has the gestural ability of our Deborah Butterfield in the States. What are you able to sell your work for in dollars? How is the art market in the UK? I have been called a “national treasure” and a “Master Ohio Craftsman” but that will just about buy me a cup of coffee. I think this time around I will improve my marketing in my remaining years. I’m redesigning my website so forgive the helter skelter of a little of everything. |
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How wonderful to have been called a national treasure, you should have no problem getting good prices but it might be an idea for you to seek guidance about that from Deborah Butterfield. She may be better placed to advise you about what you could ask in the US. If she can't she might suggest which galleries could best represent you. Or you could try her agent Greg Kucera. My original sculptures are sold to private clients world wide, each piece is individually priced according to size and complexity. There is a waiting list. I do not discuss my prices other than with clients and generally only supply galleries with bronzes. |
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It is great to have a waiting list and know that your work is sold before you start. It provides a great deal of freedom. My experience with galleries is they are less likely to represent you if you have clients who contact you directly. Some galleries like to have total control and exclusive rights to the artist. Some clients prefer working with a gallery to validate the value of the art and the artist. Among the “art elite”, is your work considered fine art or fine craft? I’ve accepted my recognition more within the company of the contemporary American craft movement…I don’t mind. It has a broader base, is more accessible, less elitist and less writing is required to justify the work. |
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What you say of galleries and clients is true in some cases. Commercial galleries tend to know their client base and what price they can sell sculpture/artwork for. It is a big mistake for artists to ever undercut what the gallery charges for their work. It is common for established galleries to ask for exclusivity within a certain radius. It is largely a matter of negotiation. According to an artist's reputation or status the terms will vary.
I can’t say what the art elite think of my work; I am sure some would dismiss it as popularist and one-dimensional, some will consider it craft and others will laud it. Three of my life-size driftwood sculptures were chosen to feature in The Shape of The Century - 100 Years of Sculpture in Britain to celebrate the millennium in London’s Canary Wharf alongside Henry Moor, Dame Elizabeth Frink and other luminaries, so from that I guess my work is largely considered to be fine art rather than craft.
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| Q | How can I find out more about your sculpture and how you make it? |
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Look very hard at my work. Try to get here on Open Days. If you can't do that, you could buy my book which gives an insight into what my life is like and what is involved in the working process. But the best thing you can do is experiment and try to find your own way of working, something unique to you will have a vitality to it and be very satisfying.
GLOSSARY of sculptural terms.
1/1 Rarely an artist will produce a single bronze from an original sculpture, this can be the case when it has been specifically commissioned. More commonly bronzes are produced in editions ranging from as few as five to an unlimited number, and are described for example as: number one of twelve or 1/12. The fewer the number of the edition, the more valuable the bronze.
Armature An armature is an internal frame or skeleton which supports a modelled sculpture. A typical armature for a small sculpture is made of heavy gauge wire, bent and twisted to form the basic shape. Often the armature is designed to leave one or more pins protruding from the base of the finished sculpture to facilitate attaching it to the plinth.
Artist's Copy or Edition. This is a term that refers to the extra casting an artist can make in addition to the stated number of the edition in theory to form part of the artist's personal collection. Traditionally editions are in nines in the UK and America; France goes to twelve, but the artist has to state what number he is aiming for at the first casting. Unlimited ones don't have to state this but are sometimes marked in a catalogue or on the piece as unlimited.
Assemblage An assemblage is a sculpture made from found objects. Typically no attempt is made to disguise the original objects used in the construction.
Carving Carving is a reductive process; generally starting with a solid block, the sculptor removes material using chisels and other tools to 'reveal' the finished form. Any material may be used but traditionally carvings are made from stone, especially marble, and fine grained woods.
Casting Casting is a method of producing a copy of a sculpture by making a mould. To make (a moulded object) in this way: a bell was cast for the church. Mould making is a highly skilled part of the bronze casting process. . Casting material is poured in to the void and left to set. Traditionally, molten bronze is used as the casting material. Cheaper modern alternatives include resin. The casting may then require some finishing work(Chasing) to remove mould lines and other imperfections. The sculptor may also wish to patinate the work to produce the final piece....
Contrapposto Contrapposto is an Italian term meaning "counterpoise" used in the visual arts to describe an asymmetrical pose of a standing human figure.
Crystacal plaster A type of medium that is cast, that has high strength and a hard surface. Its main constituent is high purity gypsum mineral.
Finial A sculpted decoration at the top of a gable, spire, or arched structure.
Hydrocal Hydrocal is a brand name plaster. A white gypsum cement.
Kinetic sculpture Kinetic sculpture is sculpture which is designed to move. The movement can be driven by interaction with the viewer, or automatically using motors or air currents, as in the case of a mobile.
Maquette A maquette is a small scale model for a finished sculpture. It is used to visualise and test shapes and ideas without incurring the cost and effort of producing a full scale sculpture. It is the analogue of the painter's cartoon or sketch. For commissioned sculptures, especially monumental public sculptures, a maquette may be used to show the client how the finished work will fit in the proposed site.
Alabaster Usually a type of gypsum and usually white in colour. A very soft stone.
Arabescato marble Arabescato is a predominately or mainly white Marble from Italy.
Bateig sandstone A sandstone from the Bateig region in Spain.
Bath Stone Bath Stone is a freestone, one that can be sawn or `squared up` in any direction. Sources mainly from the southwest of England. Warm and honey coloured.
Borriol marble A red marble from Borriol (Castellon), Spain.
Brass A yellow alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. It is relatively resistant to tarnishing.
Bronze Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon.
Carrara marble Carrara is a city in the province of Massa-Carrara (Tuscany, Italy), famous for the white or blue-gray marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione river, some 100 km west-northwest of Florence.
Cement (Winterstone) Winterstone is a sculpting medium developed by Sculptor, Lorne P. Winters, for direct modelling of finished sculpture. It is a versatile powder which when mixed with water gradually hardens during which time it can be sculpted and manipulated into any shape, colour may be added at any time during the process. Once hardened it can be carved. In solution it can be used to soak a fabric like burlap or hessian to give a weather proof finish.
Clipsham limestone Clipsham is a village well-known for its limestone quarries, located in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. This stone is from the Lincolnshire limestone formation.
Cold Cast or Bronze Resin A cheap method of casting sculptures in which the casting material is a resin mixed with powdered bronze. The finished sculpture has a surface which looks very similar to a traditionally cast bronze although it tends to be much lighter.
Colorado Yule marble Yule Marble is found in the West Elk Mountains of Colorado near the town of Marble, Colorado, USA. It is famous for its uniform pure white consistency.
Kilkenny limestone A deep blue black to subtle blue grey material. From Kilkenny, Ireland.
Labrador Labrador is a type of granite, brown in colour.
Lepine limestone Lépine limestone (also known as Lavoux à grain) is a limestone with some shells. It is extracted at the Lépine quarry at Lavoux, 14 km east of Poitiers (Vienne), France. It has a uniform off-white appearance and a fine rounded texture.
Moleanos stone A hard natural limestone from central Portugal. Extracted from the region around the town of Moleanos - Aljubarrota.
Monk`s Park Limestone The Monks Park mine is in Wiltshire, UK. Less durable than stones such as Portland Whit Bed.
Petit Granit Petit Granit is a black Limestone from Belgium. Also known as Nero Belga or Granit de Flandre. Can be blue or black in colour.
Phosphor bronze Phosphor bronze is an alloy of copper with 3.5 to 10% of tin and a significant phosphorus content of up to 1%. The phosphorus is added as deoxidizing agent during melting. These alloys are notable for their toughness, strength, low coefficient of friction, and fine grain. The phosphorus also improves the fluidity of the molten metal and thereby improves the castability
Plaster (Gypsum Crystacal R) Crystacal R used for Displayware, giftware, chess pieces etc, reusable moulds; slower drying in slip moulds and slightly better definition than Herculite No 2, and much-favoured for life-casting work.
Polyphant Stone Polyphant is a village situated 5 miles west of the town of Launceston in Cornwall, England, UK. It lies near the convergence of the River Inny and Penpont Water. A variety of Talc, it is a greyish-green potstone flecked with white and brown.
Richemont Stone A type of limestone.
Statuario marble A statuary marble, white typically polished marble with rare veins. From Carrara, Italy. Also known as White Statuaro, Bianco Statuario, Statuario Carrara and Statuario Extra.
Steel (Weathering / Corten) Weathering steel, (best-known under the trademark Corten steel) is a group of steel alloys which were developed to obviate the need for painting, and form a stable rust-like appearance if exposed to the weather for several years. The primary alloying addition in weathering steel is 2% copper
Travertin Romano A beige Travertine from Italy.
Patina Patina is a film on the surface of the sculpture. It can be from weathering or applied by the artist.
Verdigris A common name for the colour green. It can be in relation to a patina colour (from brass, copper bronze when exposed to air for a time)
Works on paper. The phrase used to describe drawings, usually of pencil, graphite or charcoal.
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