Helen Sinclair
Swansea
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~~I have been making sculpture for over thirty years and the process is still a delight to me. With every piece I make, I find the working process both comfortingly familiar and refreshingly surprising.
Although not the only subject I work from, the human form is the one I keep coming back to: the actual figure (in movement and at rest, clothed and unclothed) and the figure as depicted by other artists in any medium and at any phase in history.
I cast my sculpture into limited editions in either stone-resin or foundry-cast bronze from originals which I make in plaster, clay, wax, cardboard, wood and other mixed media
The materials I work with are as stimulating to me as the subject matter.
I live by the sea and collect driftwood, broken furniture, discarded plastic debris and other beach-found ‘stuff’, all of which regularly introduce new and unexpected vocabulary to explore.
I enjoy all the materials that I work with but, for me, there is something especially appealing about using beach-found wood. Every piece has a mystique about it because it has its own personality and a history that I know nothing about. This imparts a poetry and a drama which demands respect. I cannot dominate the pieces; I have to work with them. I assemble the bits as I find them. I have a ‘rule’ that the individual pieces should be manipulated as little as possible. I sometimes have to cut something down to make it ‘fit’ but any disturbance of the surface depletes the wood of its integrity and charm and weakens it aesthetically.
All my pieces (bronze and resin) are hand-finished and the bronzes hand-patinated. No two pieces will be the same - even within an edition, each cast is ‘unique’.
Born: 27/02/54 - Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
Married: since 1976 to sculptor/painter Terry Ryall
Education: Llanelli Girls’ Grammar School 1965 – ‘72
Dyfed School of Art 1972 – ‘73
Wimbledon School of Art 1973 – ‘76
Qualifications: B.A. (Hons) – Sculpture (second class / upper division) 1976
A.L.A.M. (Teaching - LAMDA 1976)
Professional membership :
Associate membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (2006)
Associate membership of the Society of Women Artists (2015)
(and winner of the SWA’s ‘President’s Award’ in their annual exhibition 2015)
Employment : 1976 – ’78 and 1987 – 1991 various Adult Ed. teaching
1978 – ’88 Head of Art&Craft, Ffynone House School, Swansea
1988 onward - full-time self-employed sculptor
Selected Mixed Exhibitions (or work in gallery collections)
‘Artspace’ Exhibitions, Barn Galleries, Henley-on-Thames
ArtParks International, Guernsey
Attic Gallery, Swansea
Byard Gallery, Cambridge
Chelsea Flower Show: annually since 1990
Edgar Modern Gallery, Bath
Fairfax Gallery, Tunbridge Wells, Norfolk, Chelsea
Garden Gallery, Broughton, Hants.
Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Surrey
Lemon Street Gallery, Cornwall 2004/05
London Contemporary Art Fair (with Fairfax Gallery and Edgar Modern Gallery)
National Botanic Gardens of Wales 2007, 2008
Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff
Pashley Manor Gardens : annually since 2000
Wales Open Exhibition, Margam Park 1993
Welsh Contemporary Art Fair 1993/94/95/96
Society of Women Artists’ Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London June 2015
Selected Solo Exhibitions (or two-person exhibitions with painter)
Grand Theatre, Swansea 1990
Glynn Vivian Municipal Gallery, Swansea 1993
Attic Gallery, Swansea 1994, 1997, 2008, 2014
Edith Grove Gallery, London SW10 1994 &1995
Southwark Cathedral, Southwark Festival, 1994
Fairfax Gallery, Tunbridge Wells 1995 and 2011
Handel House Gallery, Devizes 1995
St David’s Hall, Cardiff 1996
Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham 1998
Grosvenor House Hotel, Mayfair, London 1998
Flying Colours Gallery at the Cork St. Galleries, London W1 2001
Arndean Gallery, Cork St., London 2006, 2008
Smithfield Gallery, London 2007
Fairfax Gallery, Chelsea 2008, 2009
Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff 2009
Catto Gallery, London 2010, 2012, 2015
Selected Commissions:
1992 : Bultarbo Estate, Sweden : pair of lifesized oriental figures
1993 : Bronze head for ‘Esprit’ magazine’s ‘Supreme Consultant’ award
1994 : Swansea City Council, “Abertawe” 8foot wall relief
1995 : Swansea City Council, Castle Gardens : set of six convex wall reliefs
1999 : Lampbase for gateway of St Mary’s Church, Rhossili
2000 : ‘Mother and Child’ for churchyard of All Saints, Fulham
2003 : Award ‘trophy’ for Shelter Cymru
2003 : Circle of Figures for St Mary’s Almshouses, Chichester
2003 : Seated Figure for ‘Rhodes 24’, commissioned by Gary Rhodes
2008 : “Hoola Hoopa” for Raven Housing Trust, Wickham House, Redhill
2011 : “Doo Wah Diddy”, Royal Free Hospital, London
2012 : “Crucifix” : - installed permanently in Brecon Cathedral, December
2012 : “The Four Seasons”: new Marie Curie Hospice, Solihull, West Midlands
2015 : 3 metre bronze Crucifix for new English Martyrs School, Leicester
2015 : Currently working on 3metre sculpture for front entrance of Marymount Hospital and Hospice, Cork, Ireland
Television:
Half hour programme in ‘Jigsaw’ art series on HTV : August 2003
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