Sculpture in the garden

OXFORD Sculptors Group’s annual exhibition at Greys Court is now in its seventh year.

Sculpture in the Garden runs from early June to mid-July in the walled gardens and the Cromwellian building.

There will be some evening events where visitors can meander through the artworks and the wisteria vines while enjoying a glass of bubbly or an elderflower fizz.

Organiser John Nicholls says: “This show is something that people look forward to each year and we as a group look forward to it, too. It’s now our flagship show and does better than any of the others.”

Chairman Keith Appleby says: “We have 200 different sculptures this year from more than three dozen artists, some of whom are new to our group.

“There is a huge range of materials, including metal, wood, stone, glass and ceramics and a wide variety of styles and sizes.”

Rachel Batho, senior programming and partnerships officer at Greys Court, says: “We are delighted to be working with the Oxford Sculptors Group again.

“The show has become firmly established as a regular feature in our calendar and we know it brings an extra dimension to our visitors’ experience. Their sculptures and our gardens work so well together.”

Artist Nicolette Carter, from Caversham, is delighted to be exhibiting again.

She says: “What’s amazing about the group is they’re so open to supporting artists and it’s very egalitarian. They’re very accessible and welcoming — it is like a kind of community and it feels a real privilege to be part of it.”

The 59-year-old works with paper and recycled media. Nicolette says: “When I did the first Greys Court show I thought, ‘Ooh, gosh, I make mice out of paper but there’s people here doing great big bronzes and classical artwork’.

“Perhaps my work is a bit whimsical or mad or whatever, but then someone had made a sculpture of a sheep dressed as the Mona Lisa and I thought, ‘Well, if they can do that, I can do a cat in a submarine’. Do you know what I mean?

“It’s extremely creative. I think somebody has done a fish riding a bicycle and that sort of charming eccentricity is what I like about it.”

Nicolette finds inspiration everywhere.

She says: “For Mouse, I literally saw an old paintbrush lying around in the studio and I thought, ‘Ooh, he needs to be standing on something and there’s a palette’.

“There’s one called Sun on a Stick, which is a girl holding a sun, and it’s inspired by church architecture.

“We’ve just been to Spain and if you go in the churches there, they’re amazingly ornate, all the cherubs and the angels. We went to Puerto Banus on the south coast and in the town there’s this old church where you go in and it’s like, wow. I love that Latin element and the fact that they haven’t got any restraints, it’s just, ‘Let’s have a bit of gold’.”

Sculptor William Hoodless takes his inspiration from his background in rowing and anatomical studies.

The 47-year-old from Wargrave rows with Upper Thames Rowing Club and took part in the Commonwealth Regatta in 2006.

He will be showing his piece Two Dancers at Greys Court.

William says: “I use wire to make a frame, or armature, and then I use a particular kind of wax to make the sculpture.

“I pass that on to a foundry near Basingstoke, where it goes through an awful lot of processes to create a sustainable copy as the little wax things I make melt in the sun.

“They make a silicone mould of it which they use to make a wax copy. Then they give that a ceramic coat and fire the whole thing so the wax runs out of it, leaving an empty space, which they pour molten bronze into. Then they chip away all of the ceramic and treat it with acids and things to make different colours.

“Two Dancers is going to be a run of eight copies. The one I’m showing at Greys Court is blue. I’ve also got one in a more traditional brown.

“Effectively, the bronze is a copper alloy, so in the same way that you see bronze statues turn green over time it’s the copper oxidising to verdigris.”

Vanessa Beresford, from Caversham, is making her debut at the show.

She says: “You’re making sculpture to go in the garden, so maybe something stained glass within a frame. I’ve got two indoor ones and one is a Pilates lady on a mirror.

“What I’m working on at the moment is trying to put the glass away from a frame and put light behind it so that you can hang it and switch it on rather than putting it on a window.”

Vanessa, who has a studio in Twyford, teaches in order to buy the glass and other materials. She says: “I buy the glass from Reading Stained Glass at Cemetery Junction, which is fantastic, like an Aladdin’s Cave.

“You buy your glass, then you score it and put foil round it. There are two methods: the Tiffany method, just like the Tiffany lamps, where you use a copper foil around the glass and solder it together, and then there’s the type of glass you get in a church which you set it in between strips of lead. I do both.

“I want to do 3D glass and lighting and work with a someone who can do the metal frames and I can add the glass and make something like wind chimes or a weather vane.

“I want to make much grander, bigger pieces for gardens.”

Andrew Binnie is a woodcarver who was exhibiting at the Tree Barn in Christmas Common during Oxfordshire Artweeks when he was invited to join the sculptors group.

He says: “I didn’t really know anything about them then but they’re very skilful sculptors with different mediums, so I was very keen to join.”

The 56-year-old, who lives near Watlington, took up his craft six years ago after giving up his office job.

Andrew says: “I left sometime prior to the pandemic as I wasn’t very satisfied with it. I worked in the food industry, doing innovation and food quality, and I’d spent many years at Harrods and Subway and places like that.

“It took a real leap of faith to go into woodcarving and I got my first chainsaw during lockdown.

“My grandfather was a master cabinet maker with Waring & Gillow in Lancaster, so incredibly skilful. They went bust and that was the end of that.

“Sadly, I wasn’t interested in wood then, it is a more recent thing, so I didn’t pick up any of his skills.

“Sometimes I go to country shows and demonstrate, so those pieces tend to be a little bit more rough and ready. People do get quite excited by the sound of the saws, wood chips flying and seeing something emerge quickly.

“Other times, I use power tools and hand tools and do some more refined things that can take up to a week, depending on the level of detail and the size.

“I rent some stables as my workshop but I do pretty much all my work outside and it’s just beautiful looking over the fields. I’ve normally got a field of sheep beside me so lambs are a real winner. If they come over and have a look, that’s a seal of approval.

“We’re also inundated with red kites round here, so when I’m finishing a red kite it’s good when they come in quite close for a look as if to say: ‘What are you doing?’”

• The Oxford Sculptors Group exhibition is at Greys Court
from Saturday, June 8 to Sunday, July 14, 10am to 5pm daily. There is no charge beyond
normal National Trust entry. The show is staged in partnership with the National Trust and part of the sales proceeds goes to help
maintain Greys Court. For
more information, visit www.oxfordsculptors.org/events