Introduction to the artists

Adam Buick is a ceramic artist based in Pembrokeshire on the west coast of Wales. He studied Archaeology and Anthropology at university, going on to the West Wales School of Art and a Crafts Council of Ireland Ceramics Design and Skills Course in Co. Kilkenny. Adam creates wood-fired ceramics based on moon jars, a Korean form from the Choson dynasty (1392–1910) originally made from plain white porcelain. Inspired by the serenity and simplicity of a moon jar brought back from Seoul by Bernard Leach, Adam says, ‘this pure jar form has become my canvas, into which I incorporate selected sources of local materials such as clays, rocks and seaweeds.’ Adding these elements of the landscape to his work, often with unexpected results, enables Adam to show how his practice is embedded in his study of the surroundings which fascinate him, at the same time adding dramatic spontaneity to each piece.

Bernard Leach's moon jar dates from the 17–18th century. He gave it to Lucie Rie who on her death left it to Janet Leach, from whose estate it was acquired by the British Museum.

One of Adam’s pots has been donated to the National Museum in Cardiff.

Adam was presented with the Ceramic Review Award at the 2013 Ceramic Art London show. The Award recognises ‘the exceptional, the innovative, the challenging.’ Adam is one of five makers selected from over two hundred applicants for the Jerwood Makers Open 2013, a unique commissioning opportunity which recognises rising stars. He has made a series of porcelain Veneration Bells and hung them in sea caves around the coast of Pembrokeshire.

Alain-Marie was born on a farm in the Vosges mountains. Nothing predisposed him to become a sculptor. With a technical background, he works in a wide variety of industrial fields. This curiosity for the production processes and the transformation of materials actually masked the underlying quest for a particular creativity, which his passion for wood would awaken.

Since leaving college Alex Relph has produced sculpture, bespoke furniture, architectural and ornamental features for landscape and interior design, as well as props for theatre and television. Everything is designed and handmade in his Somerset design studio and workshop. He works predominantly in mild and stainless steel although he likes to incorporate other materials such as glass and wood where applicable.

Alex exhibits widely and his work has featured in award winning show gardens at Chelsea Flower Show and the Westonbirt Festival of Gardens. Public commissions include entrance gates for Memorial Park, West Ham, London, and railings and gates for community redevelopment schemes and schools.

In 2011 Alex was commissioned to make entrance gates for Cemaes Park in Cardiff, free-standing galvanised steel screens for a community garden in a new development in the Cathedral Close, Wells, and a new entrance in corten and stainless steel for an office and residential development in Camden, London.

Almuth was born in Fürstenau in north-west Germany. In 1969, a year after completing her secondary schooling, she moved to the UK where she studied ceramics at the Sir John Cass School of Art. Following that, she set up a studio in London and for the next six years made studio ceramics while she developed her ideas for sculpture. At first she worked in clay and wood, later studying metal fabrication at South Thames College, London. Since 2006 she has spent several months each year carving marble at Studio Sem in Pietrasanta, Italy.

Almuth loves ‘the way objects of beauty and intrigue can emerge from a noisy session cutting and welding steel, sparks flying in every sense, or from a quieter but no less messy afternoon pushing wet clay around.’

Alyosha studied History at Cambridge University before training as an architectural stonemason and then as a restoration stone carver at the City and Guilds, London School of Art, where he also learnt the art of letter carving.

‘I remember reading a story as a kid in Japan… it was from the folktales of Oita, the region in which I was brought up and the story was about a guy, a priest, who decided to carve a passage through a mountain because travellers kept falling to their deaths from the treacherous path which ran along the cliff edge. I think it took him over twenty years. I remember being hugely impressed with the idea that one person could even think to carve through a mountain. I later visited the passageway where the marks of his chisels could still be seen…

Stone carving requires a huge amount of persistence and determination but once you get to grips with the material, it can be surprisingly flexible and the work itself is strangely meditative. The process of carving stone is like a kind of active dreaming. The material has a density, an unforgiving nature and sense of permanence, but the work I do is more about trying to convey an idea of transformation, of fragility and lightness.’

Annet Stirling studied Graphic Design in the Netherlands, followed by Lettering at the City and Guilds of London Art School, where she subsequently taught, and an apprenticeship with Richard Kindersley.

Antonia Salmon was brought up in a household dedicated to modern sculpture and architecture, and her childhood was infused with an awareness of form and space. This is the abiding focus of her work in ceramics. Antonia studied Geography at university before training in Studio Pottery at Harrow College of Art. A year studying in the Middle East and India made a deep impression on her approach to work and since establishing her own workshop she has been experimenting with different stoneware clays, burnished and smoke fired surfaces. Some of her work is cast into bronze.

Whether inspired by the landscape, classical and twentieth century sculpture, or ancient hand tools, Antonia is concerned with the search for pure strong forms that reflect certain qualities of being. This may be exploring a form that reflects the feeling of holding or the sense of both movement and stillness within one form. There is the wish that each work should have its own energy and sit lightly as if poised in space, providing a contemplative element.

Ayako studied stone carving at the City & Guilds of London Art School. She was awarded a ‘journeyman’ grant last year by the Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust, to work for three months with the lettering artist John Neilson. Ayako has recently been awarded the Harriet Frazer Bursary to develop her lettering skills further.

As a sculptor Ben has diversified from the long family tradition of creating pots. Great-grandson of Bernard Leach and son of John Leach, much of Ben’s early life was spent talking and sharing thoughts with the artists who visited the home at Muchelney in Somerset where his father had set up his own pottery. When Ben left school he spent a year learning how to thatch. ‘Working with real materials and the honest hard graft have always been fundamental to my work – truth to materials is one of the family mantras! I love learning new skills particularly if they are ones passed down through the ages – our heritage – it’s so important to keep it alive.’ After thatching Ben learnt blacksmithing with Jim Horrobin, and then studied for a degree in three-dimensional design in metals.

Ben is interested in what lies beneath the surface of his work and the mood that projects from it. Different atmospheres are created by the set of the eyes or head. ‘To simplify the lines of the human face and yet express an inner emotional world is a continual quest.’

In her book, Sources of Inspiration, Carolyn Genders says, ‘I feel that drawing is the key to all artwork … Drawing has taught me to judge proportions, understand tone and strengths of light and shade… it helps sort out ideas and develop form.’ Carolyn’s interest in the relationship between form and surface is reflected in her ceramic vessels. Her awareness of the place of coiling in the history of ceramics, and the pots of Minoan Crete and other ancient civilisations inform her work. Winter trees in silhouette, shadows and reflections on water, ripples and natural objects such as bones, shells and pebbles all inspire her. Carolyn carries a sketchbook in which she records and develops ideas that become part of her ‘creative memory’. Part of this memory are images of works by the painters Gustav Klimt, Paul Klee, Patrick Heron and Georges Rouault, whose brushwork and use of colour hold a quality of surface texture that Carolyn admires.

Carolyn’s work is coiled in white earthenware clay, although other hand-building techniques are sometimes used. Surfaces are created with a combination of vitreous slips and wax resist or incising and sgraffitto, with oxides and glazes adding further dimensions. Carolyn sees surface treatment as an opportunity to complement and emphasise the form of the vessel and strengthen its presence.

In 2011 Carolyn was presented with the Acquisitions Award at the 9th Ceramic Biennale,Kapfenberg, Austria, and also received an Honourable Mention at the 11th Ceramic Biennale, Mino, Japan.

Charlie Macpherson creates unique pieces of hand blown contemporary glass. His approach balances the simplicity of his forms with more complicated use of line and pattern. He incorporates cane techniques in the blowing process, which are enhanced by polishing to highlight areas of interest. He enjoys designing work that invites the viewer to look more closely at the intricate details, seeing more than at first glance.

Charlie exhibits internationally and has pieces in both private and public collections. As well as winning awards for his work, he has completed commissions for a number of major UK organisations.

Charlotte Mayer has been exhibiting at The Garden Gallery almost since it opened in 1994. During this time a growing number of visitors to the gallery have become ardent and loyal fans of her work, and every summer look forward to enjoying her sculptures, both in the garden and the indoor gallery. In 2006 the gallery hosted a special exhibition of Charlotte’s work which offered an opportunity to appreciate her skill as an artist, the depth of her imagination and her exceptionally high standards of craftsmanship.

It was a great privilege to show for the first time in 2006 a sculpture which has particular personal significance for Charlotte. The Thornflower has its roots deep in her childhood and the death of her grandmother in Treblinka in 1942, but it has grown to reflect on not only the Nazi Holocaust but, as Charlotte says, ‘man’s inhumanity to man at other times.’ The sculpture which has evolved represents what Charlotte describes as ‘an urgent wish to make a sculpture uniting opposing elements of thorns and flowers, and which would speak of reconciliation, peace and oneness.’

A pamphlet telling the full story of The Thornflower with details about commissioning arrangements is available on request.

Charlotte’s family came from Prague, which she left as a child to go to England in 1939. At the age of 16 she went to Goldsmiths’ College where she grasped the importance of form and structure from two particularly influential teachers, Ivor Roberts Jones and Harold Wilson Parker. She went on to the Royal College of Art where Frank Dobson urged her to ‘keep it simple.’ Her early sculpture was figurative and carved from stone. A visit to New York in 1967 led to the creation of several sculptures in welded steel, inspired by the scale and architecture of the buildings. In the 1970s a new interest in the natural world developed during family holidays on Dartmoor. First, a series of welded animals, then beautiful poised serene forms inspired by pods, leaves, shells and ammonites, with movement a significant characteristic of her work. Most of her work is cast in bronze by the Pangolin Editions Art Foundry in Gloucestershire, with which she has enjoyed a long association. Some of her work is fabricated in steel. In gardens, Charlotte’s sculptures are in perfect harmony with trees, plants, water and the play of light.

Charlotte Mayer's work is represented in both corporate and institutional collections, and private collections in Europe, Japan and the USA. Public commissions include work for Banque Paribas in London, and in 2001 her large bronze sculpture, Pharus, was installed at Goodwood in Sussex by the Cass Sculpture Foundation.

‘I believe that a sculpture should speak for itself. It should need no verbal description. A title may give a hint to the viewer of what was in the sculptor's mind.’

During his degree at Canterbury College of Art, Danny began carving stone and worked as an assistant with the sculptor Stephen Cox, carving very large granite sculptures for The Broadgate, Liverpool Street, London. Whilst working on his MA at Wimbledon School of Art Danny began working for the sculptor Glynn Williams at the Royal College of Art, as well as continuing to work for Stephen Cox on various projects, and completing his first public commission for Morden Library.

Now living in Cumbria Danny continues to create work primarily in stone for exhibition and to commission, completing various projects including work for the Open University and Tyne Tees Television.

David discovered the particular properties of steel and bronze mesh as an art student in 1977. Since then his work has been exhibited globally and has been an enormous inspiration to many people, including architects, designers, photographers, the world of theatre and dance and collectors, as well as to other artists. The preoccupation with the human form as his subject stems from an early age; the fascination for reproducing figurative bodies in mesh has developed extensively over many years.

Denis was born in Urbino (Italy) in 1989. When he was young he loved spending time creating toys by hand. Denis studied Industrial Design at the University of the Republic of San Marino, also taking ceramic courses offered by the university, and learning raku techniques with the master Roberto Aiudi.

Emily graduated from Bristol Polytechnic with a degree in Ceramics. A move to the countryside from London in the late 1990s signalled a change in Emily’s work. Architectural influences gave way to organic ones. The rolling hills and ploughed furrows of North Hampshire were reflected in the carved lines within the pots. Inspiration was also drawn from found objects such as knapped flints and old metal cogs. Emily is a Crafts Council selected maker and a member of the Craft Potters Association.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Eric moved to Europe in 1978 and took the foundation year and Restoration course at the City and Guilds of London Art School where he discovered a love of letter carving. After a brief apprenticeship in Bruges, Eric set up a workshop in London, later moving to Cambridge where he worked at David Kindersley's Workshop for almost five years. Since 1999 he has run his own workshop “in a deconsecrated chapel in the middle of a beautiful burial ground on what was until recently the outskirts of Cambridge.”

Gianni Villoresi lives and works in a village between Arezzo and Cortona in Tuscany. His Stele, carved from timeless Italian marble imbued with light, possess a compelling stillness. Seemingly fixed to the ground like arrows they represent guardians of memory, history and myth.

"There is always an adventure in each work which engages you in solving a problem originating exclusively from the execution of that specific work and which you must solve at that moment. Therefore, the moment is unique and cannot be repeated because as other works evolve they will always be in a new situation. These are the moments in which the work of art is decided upon, even if you have been thinking about it for many months...Neither the expertise nor the experience count. It is the moment of its birth and we cannot and do not know how to explain it. When the work is completed it moves beyond us and it no longer belongs to us".

[From 'A Homage to Sculpture' by Alberto Viani, in 'Gianni Villoresi: Sculpture', produced by Galleria Immaginaria Arti Visive, Florence]

Guy graduated from Chelsea School of Art in 1994. He had enrolled on the Fine Art Painting Degree but spent much of his time developing multi-media projects. In 2001 Guy taught himself to work with stone, his early figurative relief carvings gradually giving way to more developed abstract pieces.

“I love discovering and sourcing my material, it has taken me to people and places I would otherwise not have found or thought of visiting. I hope to give the viewer or discoverer of my work the same sense of voyage, process and emotion I have felt in its creation.”

Helen studied sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art. She became a full-time sculptor after teaching for 12 years. The human figure is her primary subject and her influences include the sculptural forms and mythology of ancient civilisations, Italian Renaissance sculpture (especially Donatello) and twentieth century sculptors including Giacometti and Willhelm Lehmbruck. She also looks to painting for inspiration, especially Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and Modigliani. Recent commissions include The Mother and the Child for All Saints Church, Fulham; Five Figures for St Mary’s Hospital, Chichester and Still Sitting for Gary Rhodes’ restaurant, Rhodes 24; Brecon Cathedral's two metre hanging bronze crucifix, Doo Wah Diddy for the Royal Free Hospital in London, and The Four Seasons for Marie Curie's new West Midlands Hospice in Solihull. 

Jackie Perkins is the eighth letter carving apprentice to be supported by The Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust and was based with Eric Marland in Cambridge. A former stone conservator, she discovered a passion for letter carving seven years ago when she began attending short courses run by LCAT and others. A two year (Historic Scotland) placement with a monumental masonry firm preceded this apprenticeship and she is now eagerly refining her skills and building a letter carving career.

Jason Mulligan was elected a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 2008. He has been involved in the carving and installation of a wide variety of public art projects across Ireland, Italy and the U.K. 
His first trip to the marble quarries in Carrara in Italy was in 1996, assisting the sculptor Paul Mason. The impression he left with regarding stone carving has stayed with him ever since and the process of carving and the use of stone as a material has remained a necessary grounding in his search for form.

Jason has successfully delivered high-quality artworks for both the public and private sector; artworks that continue to explore his understanding of stone while also being informative and meditative for the viewer. Due to the variation of scale of his work, he uses a combination of both stone and bronze for sculptures situated within the public domain and the gallery. These carvings allow for his exploration of abstract geometries found within the landscape. These essential structures continue to influence and inform his ideas while the relationship between form and the surface of a sculpture is often worked using texture and colour to add a further layer of information.

Issues that currently motivate him within his work deal with the hidden landscapes, histories, actions and characters that can charge an environment.

Jilly trained as a sculptor at Exeter College of Art. Her career developed in Nigeria, her imagination fired by the local art forms, particularly carvings and textiles. Now, her inspiration comes from the ancient trees and woodland surrounding her studio and home on the banks of the River Dart in Devon. Jilly’s sculptures have been exhibited internationally and are in public and private collections in the UK and abroad. Her carved wooden portrait of the former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion is in the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. “The warmth of wood, the quality of the grain, and the life embodied in each and every tree, together with a veneration of the head as a sculptural form … this is my passion. However, working with the vagaries of the organic, still living nature of the material, and pushing the boundaries of its plasticity, is the constant challenge”.

Johannes von Stumm received his diploma in Fine Art from the Academy in Munich, Germany, in 1989. He became a fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 2003 and was elected Treasurer of the Society in the same year.

He has given lectures in schools, universities and colleges and has exhibited his work worldwide.

"It's the spiritual energy of a piece of art which counts, and nothing else."

John Williams began his career as a ceramicist after completing his degree at Brighton Art College. Prior to this he studied at Middlesex University. John’s interest in making began in his early teens, when  introduced to ceramics by a family friend. This early experience led to a larger deeper interest in making forms with clay. At the age of sixteen he began to study art.  John’s early work took the form of ceramic sculptural vessels. In 2003 he abandoned the vessel and began making sculpture based on the human figure. Born partly from his own family experience, John has demonstrated a commitment to inspiring younger generations to create and articulate their understanding of the human condition. An example of this was the staged construction of a walkway of seven sculptures in the grounds of a local Academy school. Part time teaching has enabled him to sustain his studio practice. In 2004 John was awarded the Freakley Prize for the Most Outstanding Portrait Sculpture by the Society of Portrait Sculptors. In 2007 he was awarded a Life Model Bursary from the Society of Portrait Sculptors and in 2008 he won a bursary for membership of the Royal Society of Sculptors. John recently completed a commission for Househam Henderson Architects to commemorate the site of a disused quarry. His work can be found in private collections in Britain, France Portugal and America.

Joseph studied at Falmouth College of Art, then at Newcastle University. After graduation he held a research post at Newcastle University for a number of years, whilst making a series of exhibitions in the UK. In 2000 Joseph received the ‘Year of the Artist Award’, from the Arts Council of England whilst also completing his earliest publicly-sited projects. The following year he won a scholarship and teaching role at Tulane University in New Orleans where he completed an MFA and taught on the BA for a year. It was there he made the group of works Being Human; the group of five large works was sold to a single corporate collection, whilst being shipped back to the UK. This funded Joseph’s first studio in London, where he completed the installation Generation, and held his first solo show in London at APT Gallery in 2005. In 2007 Joseph was invited for a solo exhibition with the Contemporary Art Society at the Economist Plaza, London. Joseph has seventeen large-scale permanent installations nationally and internationally. The largest of these, In Our Image (2009), stands at 16.7m tall, and has received considerable international press interest. In 2013 his work was selected for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Originally trained at the West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham during Henry Hammond's reign, Julie was for many years resident potter at Salisbury Arts Centre. She now enjoys “the seclusion and creative freedom” of her own studio.

Based on her background in visual recognition, art and design, Lisi has developed a workshop creating original and beautiful individually crafted art pieces, often with a whimsical or humorous twist. She can work with traditional or classic forms, or specially commissioned lettering. Inspired by themes as diverse as poetry, history, philosophy, science and the landscape, her work makes a dramatic focal point, or a deeply intimate tribute or message.

Lotte Glob lives and works on the far north coast of Sutherland in the Scottish highlands. Her “close, continuing and intense relationship” with that beautiful landscape is the inspiration for her work, which has a powerful affinity with the awesome wilderness in which Lotte walks alone, sometimes for weeks at a time, bringing back rocks to fire in her work. During her hikes Lotte places little sculptures, perhaps to remain undiscovered for 2000 years. This ‘Ultimate Rock Garden’, an extension of her own garden “into the great wilderness at my back door” is a token of thanks to nature. She has now placed more than 50 of her sculptures on top of mountains and in hidden places in valleys.

Lotte learnt her craft in her native Denmark through a series of apprenticeships with respected potters such as Gutte Eriksen and Knut Jensen. In her studio she creates sculptures, fountains, bird baths and domestic wares. Her sculptural ‘Books of the Land’, like “fossilised tomes from a distant past”, hide within their vitrified pages rocks, pebbles and bones, and evoke light on lochans and rocky moorland. Lotte’s work is represented in private collections worldwide, and in museums in Scotland and Denmark.

“The clay I use is essentially rock, granite, worn by time and weather, carried by rain and stream … to become sedimentary clay, reformed and burnt once again … so returning it in its new form to its old primeval earth mother does not seem too strange.”

Born in Paris and now living in Bristol, Lucianne Lassalle has made sculpture since she was a child.  She grew up in a bohemian artistic environment, her mother was a potter, her father a painter and her aunt was the muse Sylvette David for Picasso in 1953. The human form holds endless possibilities for Lucianne, as pure sculptural form or as a socio-political reflection or comment. Living In Bristol has had a big impact on her recent work, streaming a flow of urban realities, reflecting particularly the street culture in the city.  Leading her investigation into the vulnerabilities and vibrancy of human nature, here urban myths are grafted on to the archetypes of ancient Abrahamic and Greco/Roman mythologies. 

Matt studied sculpture at Bretton Hall, where the setting, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, inspired him further to develop his skills in sculpture. Matt undertook historical research into stone carving during his studies, followed by a period of training and development in India. He still works closely with his team in India, drawing on the knowledge and skills of local craftsmen to source high quality materials so he is able to produce his innovative, tactile and bespoke pieces.

Maya qualified in stone masonry from Weymouth College in 2012 and began working as an assistant to lettering artist Robyn Golden-Hann. In 2018 the Lettering Arts Trust funded intensive training for Maya to develop her abilities as a lettering artist and become more skilled in all aspects of the business. She also runs stone-carving courses around Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire. This is the first time Maya has exhibited at the gallery.

Nadine Collinson's passion for horses and relationship with animals inspires her need to communicate their beauty and character. Anything that combines movement with expression, texture and personality fascinates her. The equine form in particular combines both muscular strength and power with an inherent gentleness and fragility.

Nadine's bronze portrait head, Nick: The Gamekeeper, has been shortlisted for The Society of Portrait Sculptors' Face 2016 summer exhibition.

The forms and colours to be found in nature inspire Neil Wilkin's glass. His superb craftsmanship and keen eye for detail have resulted in an impressive portfolio of public and private commissions. His work is represented in prestigious collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Crafts Council. He recently completed five large spiders (up to 85 cms) for the Natural History Museum of Denmark, and a monumental chandelier for a private client in Kiev (image right). Since graduating in 1981, Neil has used his skills to produce exquisite, luxury glass. Clients include interior designers, property developers, architects, Thomas Goode, Asprey, Liberty, Cunard, Disney, Grosvenor Estate and Four Seasons hotels. His specialist restoration skills earned him coveted commissions, including the ‘blanks’ for the Royal Windsor Castle fire-damaged chandeliers.

Watch a short video of Neil making Hanging Spirals – available from the gallery this summer.

Nicholas Durnan creates polished translucent alabaster sculpture inspired by the beauty of mathematics and geometry revealed in natural forms. Themes based on the golden section, the mobius strip, borromean rings, torus and trefoil knot are expressed through his work. Alabaster is a tactile material which invites the viewer to touch and follow the forms.

“Heads have become an obsession to me in the search to create modern icons – whether flawed Heroes, outwardly noble and courageous but nevertheless a victim of sorts, or ambiguous Virgins, the symbol of perfection but also of female repression … This has developed alongside the idea of faces in a crowd – indistinguishable amongst all the others – each with their own private tensions and sadness … The heads are containers, not of the intellect, but of something spiritual, something secret, enigmatic and un-knowable.”

Patricia Volk strives to convey simplicity in form and inner emotion in her work. These characteristics, combined with the strength and dignity evident in her heads and figures, emphasised by their very simplicity, imbues them with an air of stillness, a serenity, which enhances the sense of peace and invitation to contemplation to be found in gardens.

In 2007 Patricia was the Regional Winner in the ING Mall Galleries 'Discerning Eye' exhibition. In 2008 she was shortlisted for the Royal Society of British Sculptors' 'Brian Mercer Bronze Casting Residency'.

Peter has developed his artistry since receiving a commission for a piece of glass to be exhibited as part of the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990. Since then he has come to work in collaboration with virtuoso glassmakers to produce exquisite individual pieces, including cylinders, bowls and roundels. A glassblower such as the Isle of Wight’s Carl Nordbruch creates a piece to Peter’s specifications and calligraphy is engraved on to this ‘canvas’. Inspirational formative influences include Eric Gill and David Jones. The intricate illuminations of the Lindisfarne Gospels also have a deep resonance within Peter’s work. Text is often inspired by his love of poetry, and may be based on lines by William Wordsworth, W.B. Yeats or T.S. Eliot, but as Peter says: “You don’t read the text as much as feel it.” Peter’s work is held by the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, North Lands Creative Glass, Caithness, and the British Glass Foundation. Of 'At Prayer' at The Garden Gallery Peter says, “The prayer is an expression of a deeply held faith in a personal God, something that perhaps we don't immediately associate with Jane Austen,that mordant critic of her quotidian day. The clarity of thought and expression is quintessential Austen, and the evident depth of feeling points to an authentic faith of a woman who was after all a vicar's daughter!” 'At Prayer' was made for 'Inspired by the Word' in Winchester Cathedral, co-curated by Sophie Hacker (the Cathedral's Arts & Exhibitions Consultant) and Rachel Bebb (The Garden Gallery).

“Who has not been struck by the beauty of light playing on cascading water or by early morning sunlight catching the dewdrops on a spider’s web?”

Light, and its interaction with glass, sculpted to express human aspirations, is at the heart of Peter Newsome’s work. His childhood memory of a tattered Buddhist prayer flag, seen in the Himalayas after the Communist invasion of Tibet, inspired his sculpture, If, through thoughts of what might have been had the prayer been answered.Peter has executed numerous prestigious commissions and gives talks about his sculptural techniques.

Influenced in part by Russian Constructivism, where appropriate he employs adaptations of modern glass engineering techniques and methods used in the construction of shatterproof glass laminates. In this way he is able to create robust, durable glass sculptures, some of which are architectural in scale.

Rebecca enjoys working on a grand scale and commissions include sculptures for cruise ships. She studied at the Royal College of Art and has work in three museums and many private collections. Her work has been selected for The New Glass Review, Corning Glass Museum New York, for three consecutive years.

Richard Jackson MRBS received a Diploma in Techniques and Technology of Hand Glassmaking and Decoration from Dudley College of Technology in 1986. He went on to study his BA under Steven Proctor and Ray Flavell at West Surrey College of Art and Design, graduating in 1989. Since then he has taken short courses at San Francisco State University, Northlands Creative Glass, Scotland, and at Bullseye Resource Centre, USA.

Throughout the 1990s Richard worked in glass studios in the USA, Denmark and the UK and held the position of technician at Surrey Institute of Art and Design. He has taught at Surrey Institute of Art and Design and at North Oxfordshire College. In 2008 he mentored for the Crafts Council.

In 2007 Richard won The Glass Sellers’ Award from The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers. He has also received awards from the Arts Council, the Crafts Council and the Department of Trade and Industry.

Richard works to commission creating pieces for public, corporate and private environments and his work is exhibited internationally in museums and galleries. His sculptures begin as ideas, with titles anchoring them in his imagination. The form develops to give voice to the idea. Curving planes and shifting volumes, delicate points and perfect curving edges result in beautiful, intriguing complex forms. A confident language of high polished surfaces, deep linear hand carving and surface mark-making add the final layer of information, completing the statement and resolving the idea as a finished piece.

From her studio in rural Hampshire Robyn hand-carves stone and slate. Specialising in individually designed lettering and stone carving, commissions include memorials, headstones, gravestones, plaques, monuments & public inscriptions.

A traditionally trained stonemason with over 20 years’ experience each commission is created in close collaboration with the client and designed sensitively to reflect those commemorated, whilst remaining appropriate to the intended location. She will advise on all elements of the individual design, offering guidance in choosing the type of stone, texture, colour and design of lettering whilst keeping in mind the final setting for each memorial.

“It is my pleasure to help people realize their vision by offering a bespoke artistic service not normally available from most monumental masons”.

Letter carving in stone is a precise discipline which requires patience and attention to detail. Each inscription is drawn out in pencil and carefully hand-carved by mallet and chisel. No computers or machinery are used to design or create the inscriptions.

Trained as an architectural stone mason and carver, prior to setting up his own studio Roger worked on the spire, tower and west front of Salisbury Cathedral during its major repair programme. In 1997 he co-organised the Touchstone Sculpture Project in Salisbury, which aimed to “demystify contemporary sculpture and encourage participation and discussion”. Practical workshops were held for four local schools (years 10-13) and a group of partially-sighted adults. Recent commissions include the design and creation of three sculptural seats in granite for The Porter’s Garden in the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth.

Roger Stephens’ sculpture is primarily abstract but he also undertakes commissions which are representational. He finds the inflexibility of stone a challenge which extends rather than inhibits his creativity. Occasionally he incorporates iron and stainless steel in his work.

“My current theme is regeneration, new life and the explosion of the energy of a new era. There is also that period just before the unfolding when it is hard to determine what the eventual shape of the new life will be. Not only is there a feeling of optimism and excitement, but also an uncertainty about the future. The forms represent future life, optimism and excitement by suggesting unseen shapes yet to emerge.”

Rosie Musgrave began to carve stone in her early 20s. Following apprenticeships with sculptors she studied figurative sculpture in clay, wood and stone at Sir John Cass and City & Guilds Art Schools in London. Her work has been informed by her experience of running a smallholding in Cornwall with her young family, working in complementary health in Devon, and practising as a somatic therapist. She also trained as a physiotherapist and worked at the Social Care Unit in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

"Many of my earliest memories are of being amongst mountains and rocks, of collecting stones in my pockets. I have always been drawn to the beauty and presence of this ancient material that has helped to shape our landscape. Much of the limestone that I carve was laid down in the Jurassic age, at least 140 million years ago. I cut stone mostly by hand with hammers, chisels, rasps and abrasives, exploring ways to honour its innate sense of gravity and stillness while still expressing energy and movement within the carved form. It is often only when a piece is nearly finished that its sensuality is revealed: the stone unveils its secrets with shell forms, veins of colour fossilised within the substance of time".

Sadie Brockbank graduated with honours from Falmouth School of Art in 1987, where she studied Painting. However her paintings rapidly became more and more three dimensional, with birds and beasts protruding from the canvasses. Following college Sadie’s work moved more fully into the arena of Sculpture, building with wood and plaster for a series of sculptures finished with coloured and patterned textile surfaces. She joined ‘The 62 Group’, an organisation of textile artists, and exhibited at various venues including ‘Out of the Frame’ at the Crafts Council in September 1992. Subsequently Sadie became interested in the lost wax process of bronze casting and produced a series of mythical figurative sculptures. Sadie has exhibited widely in the south of England, including in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition.

Sally Fawkes MRBS graduated with a First Class Honours Degree from Surrey Institute of Art and Design in 1998 having previously studied a foundation course in Art and Design at Southend College of Technology. Following graduation she worked with Colin Reid for a year.

Sally received awards for her work from the Arts Council in 2000, 2001 and 2003, The Crafts Council in 2000 and 2004 and the Department of Trade and Industry in 2005. Her work is exhibited internationally in museums and galleries and she also works to commission for public, corporate and private environments. Sally is a visiting lecturer at the Royal Danish School of Design in Denmark. She has also taught on both the BA and MA Contemporary Craft courses at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (1999-2004) and Escuela del Vidrio, La Granja de San Ildefonso, Spain (2006).

Sally Fawkes’ intriguing artworks articulate the visible and invisible possibilities of place. Bold rhythmical forms entice with the reassurance of their geometric origins and are animated by carefully considered combinations of mark-making, mirrored planes and surfaces of rich associative colours. Their luminous volumes of transparent cast glass are alive with layers of shifting imagery that blur the boundaries between the ethereal and the physical. Each piece captures the imagination in a journey of intense visual exploration.

Sally has been awarded the European Prize for Applied Arts organised by The World Crafts Council, Belgium, in partnership with The WCC-Europe and the City of Mons in Belgium. Most recently she won a prize for a large scale collaborative work with Richard Jackson from The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers, London (2012).

Her work is represented in private, corporate and public collections worldwide, including Mastercard USA and London, MUDAC, Lausanne, Switzerland, M.A.V.A., Madrid, Spain, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Born in Palermo in 1965, Salvatore Anselmo moved to Pietrasanta in 1986 where he began his training in Studio Sem, in the company of artists and master artisans from whom he learned the techniques of working with marble and with stone in general. During those years he met the sculptors Knut Steen and Helaine Blumenfeld and working as their assistant he followed the various production phases of their works from initial design to completion, experimenting with and utilising a great array of materials, from marble, bronze, granite, steel, copper and aluminium. Since 2000 he has shown in one-man and group exhibitions and has participated in International Sculpture Symposiums. He lives in Camaiore and works in Pietrasanta.

“At the centre of my sculpture there is always the body. This is where I begin, but then I consciously move away from the physical, to explore the lines, volumes and contours as pure, essential forms - seeking to discover the balance that gives harmonic movement to the sculpture. Then finally I return to the idea of the body, reuniting disparate forms into a simple, harmonious unity. This transformation lies at the heart of my working process. Its form is the body, but its aim is the spirit. My sculpture is a meditation on how to express these concepts using a language other than words. However, it is always the body and the simplification of its forms that attracts my interest.”

[Taken from the catalogue of the exhibition, The Visionary Landscape of Professor Sir Robert Burgess, held in the Harold Martin Botanic Garden, University of Leicester, in 2014, and curated by Helaine Blumenfeld OBE and John Sydney Carter FRBS.]

Shelley Robzen studied Fine Arts at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, where she received her degree in sculpture in 1974. After graduation she moved to Pietrasanta, Italy, and has been living and working there ever since. Shelley Robzen's sculpture has been exhibited and is included in private collections in the United States, Italy, France, England, Canada, Norway and Hong Kong.

Image: Dancing in the Clouds 2 (Carrara white marble, 150h x 140w x 77d cms).

Sioban Coppinger has been a professional sculptor for forty years, initially in the field of public sculpture. Her work is inspired by what she calls "our entanglement with the natural world". She observes people and animals with an affectionate, and sometimes wry, eye. Sioban studied sculpture at Bath Academy of Art and subsequently studied bronze foundry techniques in Italy. She has carried out an impressive number of commissions for public places.

Sioban has won a commission to make a sculpture for a new Marie Curie Hospice in Springburn, Glasgow. Reflecting the nature of palliative care, Sioban made a flurry of white birds from hand prints cast from hospice users and staff and made into bronze, "interconnected by a touch of wing here and a glance of beak there".

For The Garden Gallery's 2014 exhibition, Echoes in the Memory, Sioban made a sculpture called Blown Away (image right). Sioban says of the sculpture, "Blown Away is a study of a moment. The young man, his life fleeting as a gust of leaves, sees the whole world in a glance. '... Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future...'. Inspired by T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets, this piece pays homage to so many brave people whose lives are altered by their time. The plinth fabricated in mild steel is reminiscent of hastily dispatched munitions ... or a ship's funnel ... left to rust. Its stripes of bronze reflect adopted strength."

Thanks to the generosity of regular gallery clients and friends, Peter and Carole Wilcock from Winchester, Blown Away is now in the Boyes Garden at the new Remembrance Centre in the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire. The donation was enabled by Major-General Patrick Cordingley who chaired the appeal for the new Centre.

Steve is a digital artist and sculptor with a Diploma in Architectural Stone Carving at the City and Guilds of London Art School. He originally trained and practised as an architect but has more often worked as a photographer and 3D visualiser. He is currently working on several pieces with the general theme of portraiture whilst also developing other projects that tackle ideas around psychology, architecture and time.

“I am passionate about drawing and enthralled by the illusive, reflective, illusionary quality of glass. Working with glass I can indulge my love of drawing inspired by the natural world, closely observing and capturing the fine detail and structure of botanical subjects. The textural variety and challenge of perspective in architecture is another rich vein of inspiration”.

A love of plants and gardening is a major influence on Tracey’s work. She is fascinated by the play of light across the surface of glass and the way the character of her work changes with the weather. She welcomes the opportunities offered by variety of scale, from the minute modelling of a perfume bottle to the physical demands and the challenge of design presented by a pair of church doors. She also enjoys indulging her own slightly idiosyncratic sense of humour!

Tracey has engraved doors, windows and panels for churches and cathedrals. Other commissions include work for the Colleges of Ampleforth, Eton and Winchester, the BBC, Chelsea Physic Garden, Hampshire County Council and the Dean and Chapter of Winchester. Her work has been presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Gloucester and the Sultan of Oman. Recently the Historic Royal Palaces commissioned a piece to present to Her Majesty the Queen at a ceremony to mark the Tower Hill Improvement Scheme. Tracey is a past chairman of The Guild of Glass Engravers and was elected Honorary Vice President of the Guild in 2005.

In 2011 Tracey designed and engraved the glass screen for the front of the Chiddingfold Parish Room, which won the RIBA Downland Award. Jim Garland was the architect.

The image to the right shows details from five panels Tracey engraved for Jack's Place at Naomi House, the children's hospice near Winchester. Tracey called the engraving 'The River of Life'. A book of black and white photographs, 'The Garden Gallery', taken by John Garfield of sculptures and other artworks at the gallery, initiated fund-raising for the commission.

Will Spankie studied Modern History at university before training as a sculptor at the Sir John Cass School of Art and Central St. Martin's College of Art. He was taught lettering by John Skelton and Mike Leman. His work is often influenced by organic forms and the environment. He is interested in the geometric structures, patterns, symmetry and proportion to be found both in nature and the unfolding of numbers in space. He works mainly in stone and wood “because they are durable, lovely to carve and have their own innate beauty”.

Will also carves house signs, commemorative plaques and memorials. As well as working to commission and making work for exhibitions, Will teaches stone carving, sometimes in schools, pupil referral units and prisons. He also teaches letter cutting and is a Friend of The Edward Johnston Foundation, dedicated to maintaining the art of calligraphy and lettering.

In 2011 Will made a new sculpture for Wirral University Hospital and sold another to Aintree Hospital.