ROBIN HOLLIDAY

CONTEMPORARY BRONZE SCULPTURE

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 exhibiting and selling in galleries in and around Sydney, I have sold bronzes abroad. Seven in the USA: Seattle, Berkeley (California), Albany (New York state), Texas, and Kentucky. Four in the UK: Cambridge, London, Sussex, Hertford. I have also donated sculptures, for example, to Macquarie University, the Childrens Medical Research Institute, Westmead, and the Royal Society, London