Sculpture
Always trying to push the boundaries… I’m continually experimenting with new techniques and materials, trying to bridge the gap between painting and sculpture. Working with the most prestigious bronze foundry in the world in recent years has opened possibilities far greater than I could possibly have imagined.
Bronze
I've always thought in 3D, I guess my painting style is testament to that with the impression of depth and movement that I strive for, but it's obvious to me far further back than that. My entire childhood spent playing (learning...) with Lego is where I attribute much of my foundation as an artist, and I still have a felt tip collage I won a prize for aged 5, which is multi layered. At school it was pottery and woodwork that I most revelled in, then at university studying aerospace engineering, again it was the practical side. With sculpture my aim is for the perception of energy and dynamic, as if that most solid bronze thing was moving at the point that it was suddenly frozen in time, and to be honest, right now sculpture is where my mind spends most of its time. The challenges, time scales and costs with sculpture are exponentially greater... but also the scope of possibilities and power of the result with a much greater physical presence, should I get it right. Everything I create sculpturally, I can see in my mind’s eye from the outset, I wait for that vivid 'Eureka moment' of visualisation before embarking on anything, have to be totally clear what I'm working towards, then the 'only' challenge is to bring that vision to reality.
Where sculpture has led me, is almost unfathomable, and just feels like a legacy that is so much more permanent than paint. Creations from near indestructible materials that will be around for a lot longer than I will be, and celebrating subjects often so revered, even worshipped, is a difficult thing to get your head around, to be trusted with creating something of that magnitude. For McLaren to commission a decade long project to celebrate their iconic world champion drivers in life-size bronze, and Lamborghini’s bull to stand outside of their St’Agata HQ... it’s been a hell of a journey since that boy with an AirFix MP4/4 and a Countach poster on his wall! But at the same time, that’s exactly why we’re here. I may well have already created my most renowned work – indeed although I will never rest from furthering what I do, I think that's fairly likely actually. But then again, I never saw that career defining epiphany coming either, that led me to create Senna 'Eau Rouge'. Inadvertently at first, I appear to have carved my own niche and a renewed self-styled role to celebrate the history of F1 in sculpture. My perspective since has gradually shifted, around what I’m doing and why. Not only do exceptional people deserve only the most exceptional effigies, but the boundaries of what is generally expected with motorsport sculpture need to be pushed too. Many motorsport fans profess to not be interested in art, yet I am more and more convinced that this is predominantly a limitation of the art that’s found them, rather than their appreciation of it.
Twisting reality is fascinating me, to confuse the eye, even to tackle a perceived creative threat of AI head on. Most anything incredible online is already assumed to be AI, yet I truly believe that what AI proports to be art will only make the true artists stand out even more. Whether it be a driver sculpture so realistic that he might just move, or physics defying surrealism, that’s exactly where I’m heading. Where you think that something looks to be an impossibility, then I'm gonna prove the opposite by physically creating it, and with impeccable provenance that could never be simulated.
Each sculpture is typically created in several limited edition scales, in partnership with the world foremost artistic foundry, Pangolin Editions.
Senna Eau Rouge
This life-size bronze statue was created through 2018 to launch at Autosport January 2019, to mark 25 years since the Brazilian’s last race. Since then it has been on permanent display at McLaren MTC Woking. And the start of the next chapter of my career – to celebrate and immortalise the icons and history of F1 in bronze.
The statue was modelled on real life with myself as the stunt body – being coincidentally the same height and build as Ayrton. My aim was to portray the dynamic of Eau Rouge into Raidillon, about which Ayrton famously said “If you take away Eau Rouge, you take away the reason why I do this”. The beauty of modelling on real life is that it inherently includes the natural ripples of the race suit distorted by the thickness of the logos, the strain of holding this position translating nicely into the forces of driving. Evident by the ‘oversteer dance’ I have seen many times in front of the statue since! Perfect.
