Tony O’Grady – Cast of Twelve, Leah Marshall – Youth
Tony O'grady, Leah Marshall
Showing 12th May 2020 - 30th May 2020
Exhibition Information:
Tony O’Grady – Cast of Twelve, Leah Marshall – Youth
Cast of Twelve – a selection of bronzes
Tony O’Grady
The sculptural mediums I work in are stone, wood, clay, plaster, concrete, wax and bronze. I enjoy the physicality of making sculpture especially ‘carving’.
Over the last 5 or so years I have been spending most of my time exploring the medium of bronze and producing smaller works, with a large concrete ‘commission’ thrown in the mix.
For me the human figure has always been a fascinating subject to apply sculptural ideas of mass, weight and balance, positive and negative space etc
On a personal, spiritual level to work out a vision and meaning. Throughout that process my hope is to discover new and vital ideas. I try to create powerful, monumental feeling work, (no matter what size) I hope my work shows those that view it, something unique, individual and even uplifting.
Youth – a selection of works
Leah Marshall
Working originally in bronze sculpture, I have always studied,
sculptured, painted and been totally fascinated by the human fig-
ure. My endeavour was to capture not only form and character, but
to use imagination to link these through the creative process to
more universal themes.
At a point in my practice I discerned a need to divorce form from
colour, to enable me to work on refinement and fluidity in form.
Around this same period I responded to an urgent and growing
need to document and celebrate my son’s ever changing childhood.
The concept was born to link this need to a wider theme of human
youth, honouring both the innocent glowing litheness of the young
body, and its rich nobility of imagination. As the series developed,
and 12 years passed, a rich extra dimension emerged: that of
recording the impermanence of youth; its mutability; its evanescent
– and therefore priceless – rarity.
As with the boast ot Shakespeare that through the lines of his poem
his love’s eternal summer shall not fade, but rather:
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”
so too this series attempts to preserve moments of time, and the
associated feelings and fancies of that time; elevated upon a
pedestal, out or the flow of time.
Rather than painting in highly worked layers of oil colour, as with
other threads of my work, in this series I restricted my palette to
two transparent earth tones. The distraction and concerns of colour
were removed, leaving me free to concentrate on tnbe pure image.
To achieve the desired effect, these two hues are laid down togeth-
er, one area (eg. the torso), needing to be completed in one ses-
sion. Once an area has dried it is never reworked.
Although working in a disciplined and structured fashion from full
sized charcoal sketches, this technique forced me to work at speed
in a vehicle pared down to the basic elements needed to convey the
spirit of the moment, the idea, and the individual.