At  a party I met someone who had seen at my work online and said that they liked my tall Slate Cone - Tallis, but had I thought of making a similar piece in local stone that would possibly sit more sympathetically in the Cotswolds.

Inspired by working in material other than slate I thought about the Cotswolds  houses that are built with warm honey coloured stone and have beautiful  stone roof tiles made from Stonefield Slate. The Stonesfield quarry closed down at the start of last century and to obtain slate stone of this type requires reclaimed material.

By luck a friend was having her roof retiled and the builder had some damaged material that I could use.The stone roof had been on that house for over two hundred years and now I was going try and recycle it to create art.

I spent weeks with a hammer splitting  the old stone into suitable sized pieces and then slowly built them up on to an armature (a frame base)  to create a tall Stone Cone, topping it off with a Lead apex.

It was wonderful to work with a fresh material to me and it feels good to have recycled and repurposed this natural and beautiful slate into my Sculpture. The new work is yet to be named, maybe someone has a suggestion?

At the historic Greys Court  it is privilege to be part of the Oxford Sculpture group annual exhibition. The extensive grounds and property have sculpture exhibited until 17th July. This is the first time I have had work here but I certainly hope to return and enjoy having my work inside and in the grounds. 

As a member of the Oxford Sculptors Group I was delighted to be invited to exhibit at the Blenheim Palace Autumn Fair.
There were eleven sculptors involved with thirty sculptures displayed in the historic Walled Garden, the event was enhanced by late sunny days and was attended by thousands of visitors enjoying the Autumn Fair and the freedom of the new opening up from the restrictions of recent times. Traditional coconut shy's a massive straw castles entertained children and grownups along with a Chill-out Bar and Oxford independent vendors and street food outlets gave the whole event a Festival vibe that was a welcome event at the tail end of summer. 
I certainly hope that this is going to be an annual event and would love to take part again.

The event was organised by Charlotte Lloyd Webber of www.clweventdesign.com 

Thompsons Gallery, in Aldeburgh had invited me to partake in the annual exhibition that runs at their Suffolk gallery from June 12th - July 4th 2021. 

Like all exhibitions the art work have to be delivered ahead of the exhibition in order to photograph the work, produce the catalogue and publicity material.

 As I had a number of items that had been selected it made sense to deliver them all in good time in March. By coincidence I also required some more photography so it made sense to combine a photo session on the beach and the delivery of my new sculptures. 

After a long but pleasant drive from Oxfordshire I arrived at Aldeburgh and was  surprised to walk on the beach to find a number of people all gathering around what appeared to be a collection of iron objects, after closer examination the four objects had a small caption that stated the objects were Antony Gormley sculptures!

What I had stumbled upon what was apparently on the local news and there was a great deal of controversy about this ‘installation’ .

The objects were actually Gormley’s work and had been purchased by local Art Gallery owner Caroline Wiseman, the collection of four items were described as a Quartet (sleeping), but the Artist had named them differently and he had objected to them been displayed as they were just laid on the beach but they were created to be standing pieces. 

While I was there the story unfolded on local BBC news posting and that the Artwork required council permission to be displayed .

The permission was applied for retrospectively ,however the items had caused such a stir & many people became interested in the work. The result was that the work became available for sale and the sculptures were sold and the reclining objects were going to be removed so the issue of their display was resolved?

I was looking foward to see the work of Maggi Hambling’s ‘Scallop' a few hundred metres up the beach, shining in the broken Suffolk light this beautiful steel work glistens and sparkles with its myriad of textures and factions. It took many years for the locals to warm to this magnificent work, so it was not a surprise that the Gormley work had become an issue with locals, councils and the Artist. 

I did get a photograph a new work of mine, but that is still under embargo so here are the images of the one permanent and a few transient sculptures on Aldeburgh Beach.

 2021 promises to be a great improvement on 2020, we are all aware that the last year has been very challenging but a lot of my  time was spent working on new work & one of the new pieces I am very proud of is Cirque.
The new piece is a progression from the series of round slate work that I named Resonance, the prototype was completed in late 2020 and the first finished piece was delivered to Pinkfoot Gallery, Cley next the Sea, Norfolk in December 2020.
The sculpture was filmed by Lorentz Gullachsen and a short video released on instagram & Youtube.
This filming process was a new way of showing my Slate work and it allowed me to highlight the qualities of the materials,
the contrasting textures, the outer stainless steel band and the Portland stone base.
Getting involved with the filming process was exciting and creatively rewarding and I hope you shall enjoy this short video.

To see the work please click on this link below.

youtu.be/rgzLsw-Ewso

In Autumn 2019 I was invited by Thompson's Gallery London to submit work for the Monochrome Exhibition in Spring 2020.I thought this was a wonderful idea to show a range of dramatic Black & White paintings, sculptures and charcoal drawings.
A celebration of tones rather than colour. My brand new creation Eclipse fits the brief perfectly, with a sleek stainless steel outer body containing hundreds of shards of grey slate. This elegant form stands on a large green oak block.
The online exhibition (due to Lock Down) runs from the 29th April to the 16th May 2020.
A personal favorite of mine in the exhibition is a stunning Charcoal on Paper- Summer Oak by Roy Wright.

Lion Street Gallery - Hay on Wye

​My early teenage years were spent in Mid Wales enjoying the world of all things horsey, including Pony Club and riding out / exercising the David Davies Hunt Horses at Lord David Davies home in Llandinam. 
Riding my own horse across the stunning remote hills and mountains was an innocent and wonderful time of freedom. 
When I started to sculpt it wasn't long before the equine subject came to the fore.
All those years ago I would never have imagined that I would be creating and selling my equine sculptures back in Powys, Wales at the Lion Street Gallery, but that is exactly what has happened, strange how life runs in circles.
   

Sue Jones (16)  & Rocket at Plas Dinam 

​Thanks to the world of Instagram, I was informed by fellow artist Georgia Cox on her Instagram feed that there was call for submissions to the 114th Summer Open Exhibition by Bath Society of Artists. 
I submitted work and was happy to have my recent Resonance Slate work accepted. 
To be in such great company and appreciating the long  history of such an exhibition is a great honour, especially when such luminaries have previously have exhibited as such as Walter Sickert, John Singer Sargent & Patrick Heron to name just a few.

The exhibition is on till the 29th June 2019 see details here
www.bsaorg.uk

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Tarifa Tuna - Sculpture & Weather vane



It's a long time since I did a blog so I felt that I would do an overview of last years wonderful places that I visited to see, admire and be inspired by art and sculpture.
The spring trip to Andaluzia, Spain included  travel  to take in various sculptures along the way.
​One that stands out was a huge metal Tuna high on a pole at the water's edge in windy Tarifa. This huge sculpture was moving in the wind and as the sand was whistling by it felt the perfectly sited.
I had a day in historic Malaga and visited the Pompidou Centre where I was so delighted to find a Seraphine painting on display. Years ago I watched the French film  Seraphine, a true story of an artist and how she was discovered, it’s a beautiful but sad film.  Seeing her work in the flesh was powerful and very emotional!
The Brancusi Exhibition was also on at the time with an extensive body of work as well as film & photography.

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2018, curated by Grayson Perry. The theme was humour and was full of fun and wild things and you couldn’t help but be entertained by the feel of the show. One small clay head sat in a corner on the floor with a price tag of a something like five hundred thousand, I think it was a little persons entry !

Another summer weekend found me at Lake Vyrnwy in mid Wales, where below the damm was a Sculpture trail  with huge wooden sculptures including a carved boat with a group of small houses and a church carried on its top to unusual abstract shapes positioned in the woods.

On Form Stone Exhibition 2018 at Asthall Manor in the Cotswolds, again one of the highlights of the year with spectacular choice of all things stone displayed over garden, church, meadow and in the house. The work and preparation to put on such a stunning show is amazing and world class. 
The inspiration flows when you wander amongst the tactile , skilfully carved colourful stone pieces. My favourite piece this year was a Dominic Welch Kilkenny Limestone sculpture- Cycladic Moon.

Later in the glorious summer a memorable visit was also taken to Churt in Surrey to spend many hours wandering around the Sculpture Park where every taste is catered for, glass spheres, stainless steel boats on the lake twisting and glinting, big wooden totem poles, stone animals.
I did have lively dreams that night with imagination overload!


I was also a participant in the Society of Women Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London. 

In October the Affordable Art Fair was held at Battersea and my work was represented by Thompson's Gallery.
​It was great to see art on many forms from across the world, another fun and inspiring day.


There were so many more visits that inspired me, now I am looking forward to 2019.