S D N A H D N A D SCULPTURE IN A THE GARDEN HAROLD MARTIN E BOTANIC GARDEN 27 JUNE TO H 19 SEPTEMBER 2010 T R A E H Welcome from Professor Sir Robert Burgess I am delighted to welcome you to and love for sailing which inspires this year’s Sculpture Exhibition; the his work; the sea, birds, fish and ninth that the University of the human form are all imagery Leicester has hosted in the that he combines into his metal magnificent surroundings of the sculptures. Harold Martin Botanic Garden. Established by the University in This year’s exhibition will provide 1947, the 16 acre garden provides a visitors with many hours of delight, fascinating habitat to many experience and inspiration and will significant plants. It is an certainly provide the opportunity inspirational outdoor space that is to engage with a wide range of an ideal location to site innovative high quality sculpture. It therefore and creative artworks and gives me great pleasure to educational events. The Garden welcome both artists and visitors also embraces the University once again to enjoy the event in philosophy of synergising teaching these attractive and well and research and its ongoing maintained gardens. commitment to inclusion and accessibility by providing Finally, I would like to thank the educational opportunities for curator, the exhibiting artists, researchers, students and the volunteers, and the many members general public. of University staff who have given so generously of their time to This year I am extremely pleased make this exhibition an enormous that the exhibition, entitled ‘Heart success. Head and Hands’ is again being curated by Dr John Sydney Carter, I do hope you enjoy this year’s FRBS. (Fellow of the Royal British Sculpture Exhibition. Society of Sculptors). Dr Carter is a prolific artist who works in many art media, including sculpture, painting and design. He is a native of Leicestershire and was trained at Gateway Technical Grammar School where his interest in art was developed before he started an Professor Sir Robert Burgess apprenticeship as an industrial Vice-Chancellor designer and finally entered University of Leicester Leicester College of Art to study art full time. John has a national and international reputation having had work commissioned and exhibited throughout the world. Front cover His sculptures reflect his passion Red Plus Black 2010 Painted steel John Sydney Carter FRBS 2 SCULPTURE IN THE GARDEN HAROLD MARTIN BOTANIC GARDEN 27 JUNE TO 19 SEPTEMBER 2010 3 4 Foreword Dr John Sydney Carter FRBS The title of this exhibition is ‘Heart The Harold Martin Botanic Garden has Head and Hands’, simple metaphors hosted Sculpture in the Garden for for the main three areas in which inner nine years and is the perfect venue for creation works. The proportion or a National Sculpture Exhibition. This importance between each of them year there are sixty three sculptures by differs greatly in all artists’ work. In the forty one artists on show. individual artist there may even be the complete absence of one of these I would like to thank Professor Sir three areas, information from the Robert Burgess for supporting ‘Heart hands being an example. Head and Hands’ and I know it is appreciated by the many visitors who The infinite variety that has existed in come back year after year to view the the arts through the ages is the exhibition. reflection of the many possibilities of these three metaphoric areas. We are indebted to the gardeners for providing such a wonderful backdrop The ‘Heart Head and Hands’ is also a for our sculpture, once again art and means by which members of the nature can live in harmony. public who come to view the works of sculpture can make their own assessments of what is most apparent to them. This year’s exhibition has been well supported by members of the Royal Society of Sculptors. Helaine Blumenfeld FRBS, who founded this annual show in 2001, will be exhibiting a bronze sculpture this year. There are also some new faces from Germany and the USA, showing a cross section of experimental, abstract and figurative work. ‘Heart Head and Hands’ will show the diversity, personal working styles and approaches of today’s sculptors. From left to right: Sheila Vollmer , Tower Line; Diane Maclean , Stranded Head, Stranded Heart 5 Tom Allan ARBS PAI A sculptor for thirty years, mainly in stone and marble, Tom Allan studied at Glasgow School of Art and is currently working in Carrara, Italy and in Glasgow, Scotland. Contributing to the neglected tradition of stonecarving in his native Scotland. Allan has exhibited widely, organised Scotland’s first International Stone Sculpture Symposium, as well as teaching classes for both beginners and experienced artists. Allan exhibits two sculptures in this show: ‘Elemental Head’, partly inspired by Mayan art and partly by the work of George Innes (1916 – 1970), a Scottish sculptor who worked out his own geometric style of stone-carving. The ‘Philosopher’ echoes prehistoric Cycladic sculpture. The marble is from Carrara, but is the rarer cloudy type, which the artist felt was more suitable for this piece. “Stone sculpture is an expressive art, conveying ideas and feelings. My work unites hand carving with power tools, bringing modernity to an ancient art. I make sculptures on a domestic scale as well as large-scale commissions and public projects. I normally carve direct, with little preparatory drawing or maquette-making. The stone Elemental Head (illustrated) determines the form to some extent, 2010 but the design has to come from the Locharbriggs sandstone, granite and artist.” wood H130 x W30 x D30 cm Philosopher 2010 Carrara Bardiglio marble, granite and tropical hardwood H135 x W30 x D30 cm Website details: www.tom-allan.co.uk 6 Mary Anstee-Parry ARBS Anstee-Parry is an educationalist, sculptor, letter-cutter and woodcarver who has exhibited nationally from the Minories, Colchester to The Royal British Society of Sculptors’ Summer Exhibition. Anstee-Parry’s work is autobiographical and is a response to something she has seen or done. ‘Absence (of my Beloveds)’, carved in the style of African tribal carvings, has been inspired by her sons and is a memorial to their childhood. ‘Tattoo’ was a response to the sight of a mother duck with her ducklings coming into the artist’s garden. After feeding, they all disappeared into her feathers where they stayed for a while until tumbling out again – the ducklings have been inscribed and embedded onto the mother duck’s sculptural form. Anstee- Parry emphasises the watchful eye of the mother duck by highlighting it in gold-leaf. “Sculpture and the making of it are never very far from my thoughts. I probably spend as much time thinking about it as I do carving. I like the act of carving because of the feeling that I never know quite where the sculpture will end – not quite being in control. In my work I develop an idea in a Absence (of my Beloveds) sketch book, and, then two or three (illustrated) years may pass before I feel that this 2005 sketch can translate into a valid Oak, ash and gold-leaf sculpture. I then find a piece of stone H150 x W50 x D50 cm which is big enough to take the idea and start carving, hoping with a wing Tattoo and a prayer, that I will be allowed to 2006 take from this stone the idea that is in Limestone and gold-leaf my head.” H50 x W50 x D50 cm Website details: www.anstee-parry.com 7 Rosemary Barnett RAS Rosemary Barnett was principal of the Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture and the founder of the Elisabeth Frink School of Sculpture, both in Stoke on Trent. Barnett has exhibited widely, as well as curating the Jerwood Sculpture Park in Worchestershire. “The ‘Orator’ has the power to move thousands and change the course of history. This sculpture evokes the feeling of self possession, power and strength of ideas which are requirements of a good orator. I began my sculpture career as a stone carver in my teens and have now returned to stone with great joy, having run the gamut of all the sculpture materials.” Orator 2007 Creeton limestone H60 x W18 x D26 cm 8 Richard Baronio ARBS Trained at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (1965) and graduating as a Bachelor of Arts in Art History, Baronio turned to sculpture. He attended the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico where he completed a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture in 1969. Baronio has an international reputation exhibiting in many sculpture exhibitions throughout the world from China, New York, Japan and Dublin. ‘‘‘Bird Cry’ has gone through numerous changes in its development over the past several years. Parts were added, others cut away, then other parts added until it eventually arrived at its present form. What it was about eluded me until quite recently and even now I am not sure I understand it completely or if I ever will. I am used to working like this, not knowing quite what I am doing or why I am doing it. It is a practise that suits me.” Bird Cry 2010 Welded stainless steel H338 x W91 x D91 cm www.richardbaroniosculpture.com 9 Nicola Beattie Nicola Beattie completed her foundation year at Exeter College of Art and Design, where she concentrated on painting, and in 1990 completed a BA Hons in Sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art and Design. Beattie’s sculptures are inspired by the human figure and her stone carvings are the juxtaposition of forms and fluidity.