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ROBIN
HOLLIDAY Biography
My interest in sculpture dates back to the
l960s and l970s when I attended classes at an Art School in Hertford,
Herts, UK, and also at the Camden Art Centre, Finchley, London. Two of
my instructors were the established sculptors Mark Harvey and Jesse
Watkins, and three others had worked as assistants to Henry Moore,
Barbara Hepworth and Eduardo Paolozzi. I have worked with stone, wood,
clay and plaster. I also obtained instruction in art metalwork, and I
have experimented with mixed media. My work is mainly abstract, but I
sometimes bridge the gap between representational forms and abstract
ones. This is in part due to the influence of organic shapes on my
sculpture. At present I am working mainly in plaster, built up on wire
armatures. By a combination of adding plaster and carving or wearing it
down I achieve the final form. This is then finished with a bronze
patina, or caste in bronze. In Sydney one of my abstract pieces, known
as "Diad", has been caste in bronze at Alan Crawford's foundry. I am now
working on another piece and have sketches or clay maquettes for at
least two others. I have been influenced strongly by the established
British school of abstract sculpture, particularly Henry Moore and
Barbara Hepworth, but also Lynn Chadwick and Reg Butler. My interest in
organic forms can be related to the paintings, drawings and prints of
Graham Sutherland.As well as a part-time sculptor, I am also an author,
and I earned my living until retirement in l997 as a scientist,
specialising in genetics and cell biology. I now have much more time
available to involve myself in sculpture. I have joined the Sculpture
Society and plan to exhibit pieces for sale at the various exhibition
organised by the Society or by others. The title of the abstract bronze
sculpture "Diad" has a double meaning. It refers to the two parallel
pointed forms, and also to the fact that the sculpture contains two
contrasting components: the pointed forms and the rounded one encircling
the hole. |