PHILIP HEARSEY: THE MAKING OF A BRONZE SCUPLTURE
I am intrigued by the surface and the alchemy of patination. Not because of any obsession with technique, which is difficult to master, but because of the challenging possibilities and the unpredictability of the outcome.
Making a pattern is an extremely creative part of my early work process but can be very time consuming. The majority of my patterns are made from resin although some are carved directly into wood. Plaster is also good but does not stand up well to the rigours of the foundry. It can be quick and useful where only one or a limited number of casts are required.
Bronze is eternal - yet malleable. I love the stuff. In its natural, polished state the tone and depth of colour is sublimely beautiful, yet the surface is endlessly receptive to the transformative effects of oxidisation.
The linear discipline engrained by an architectural background inevitably informs my sculpture but I am most powerfully driven and inspired by the natural forms and landscape and, most notably, the immensely strong sense of place where I live and work in Herefordshire, on the edge of England where it is interwoven and blurred with the Welsh borders. Whilst the landscape of the border country seems very quiet and slow-changing the wind and clouds are never still. And equally important to me is the sea and the land it touches that changes with the rise and fall of every tide. It is a natural rhythm that flows through almost every important and constant strand of our life.
There is always a back story. What is in my head when I create the work it is deeply personal but it does matter that the work engages the imagination of the onlooker to connect with a deep-rooted and instinctive appreciation of simple, universal forms.
