"The thing is with inspiration, is that you never get any warning before it hits you…”
I've always thought in 3D, I guess my painting style is testament to that, but it's obvious to me far further back than that. My entire childhood spent playing (learning...) with Lego is where I attribute much of my foundation as an artist, and I still have a felt tip collage I won a prize for aged 5, which is multi layered. At school it was pottery and woodwork that I most revelled in, then at University studying aerospace engineering, again it was the practical side. And to be honest, right now, sculpture is where my mind spends most of its time. The challenges and the costs with sculpture are exponentially greater... but also the scope of possibilities and power of the result with a much greater physical presence, should I get it right. Everything I create sculpturally, I can see in my mind’s eye from the outset, I wait for that vivid 'Eureka moment' of realisation before embarking on anything, have to be totally clear what I'm working towards, then the 'only' challenge is to bring that vision to reality. Based on three-dimensional motion capture and using the rarest of assets for hyper realism and dynamic, and a new improved take on what is fundamentally a very traditional output – 3D capture and augmented-reality modelling translated into the age-old tradition of lost wax bronze casting. And where sculpture has led me to, in a relatively short space of time, is mind blowing. Creating sculpture just feels like a legacy that is so much more permanent than paint, created from near indestructible materials that will be around for much much longer than I will be, and celebrating subjects often so revered and indeed worshipped, often by those who are so close to them... is a difficult thing to get your head around, to be responsible for creating something of that magnitude. I may well have already created my most renowned work – indeed although I will never rest from furthering what I do, I think that's fairly likely actually. But then I never saw that career defining epiphany coming either, that led me to create Senna 'Eau Rouge'. Inadvertently at first, I appear to have carved my own niche and a renewed self-styled role to celebrate the history of F1, in life-size bronze. Each statue is around 12 months from concept to realisation, and is created in three limited edition scales: Life-size, 60% (F1 wind tunnel development scale) and 20%.
Carioca, the
Lamborghini bull
Created as part of Lamborghini’s global celebrations to mark 60 years. Twelve months in development to test the well known ‘Bull in a camera shop’ adage, based on a 3D capture of a young Hereford bull. I’d love to regale tales of unprecedented jeopardy as we froze a rampaging beast in full flight at the centre of our 160 camera rig, to recreate the famous logo. In reality, we found that if we placed a bucket of feed just out of reach of the tethered bull, that he stuck the pose perfectly, which was safer for all. Even so, the farmers' reassurance to our health and safety concerns ‘Don’t worry, I know my bull will be fine!’, didn’t really help... It is named Carioca after Lamborghini’s first vehicle, a tractor built from tank parts after the 2nd World War.
Unveiled in 4ft 115kg of bronze standing on his own shadow, with Lamborghini Birmingham and shown at their Silverstone 60th celebration. Also created in a bonnet sized 1ft 7kg, and car sized 11ft 1000kg.
