paul smith - sculptor
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Artist's Statement:
I am a full-time gallery artist, living and working on the edge of the Peak District National Park. My figurative sculptures are in a bold and semi-abstract style, with graceful sweeping curves and simplified details. The main subjects of my current work are re-interpretations of European folk tales such as Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. My version of this cautionary classic has a contemporary twist, she is presented not as an innocent victim, but as a confident femme-fatale. There is often an element of dark humour in my work, nothing is as it first appears and nothing can be taken for granted. I use children’s stories as the vehicle to explore the universal themes raised in terms of adult-oriented concerns; love and jealousy, duplicity and trust, all usually bittersweet in nature.
My work is solidly rooted in the figurative tradition. Of all the artists of the past I particularly admire the work of Elie Nadelman. A Polish-born sculptor working in the earlier part of the last century, he was innovative in his wonderful sense of fluid line and form, influenced in turn by American folk art.
All of my figurative ceramic sculptures are hand-built one-offs. Some of my original sculptures are cast to produce bronzes in limited editions of 9, and bronze resin sculptures in limited editions of 12 or 24. I also work to commission on large-scale outdoor sculptures in a variety of materials.
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