Artists Describing Their Art:

Heinrich Filter - Dear Friends of African wildlife, Taking inspiration from the bush and my previous experience as a safari guide my creations strive to capture the essence and beauty of the animals I sculpt. A completely self-taught artist, my expertise ranges from figurative, wildlife, bird, abstract to African works. Each piece is exclusively sculpted, chased and finished by myself and available in either solid Sterling silver or bronze and in any size - from coffee table pieces to life-size sculpture. For every purchase a donation is made to a conservation organisation of your choice. Warm regards from the southern hemisphere Heinrich Filter ...

Daniel Lombardo - My art is first informed by the human figure, its essential vertical presentation with a focus on unique but related frontal and rear views, and the gestalt of interconnected shapes that are both linear and volumetric. It is secondarily informed by totem poles of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest and other tribal cultures from around the world, with their stacked and interconnected elements that may represent key figures or concepts in their myths and legends, combined to "tell a tale" or remind of basic cultural tenets. Though my sculptures do not represent any specific events, I imagine my pieces as abstract tales both of personal events or generally themes of human experience. The pieces develop from gestural sketches based on this visual language of interconnected forms merging and diverging usually along a vertical axis. Most recently I have worked in forged steel which has fostered new gestural elements that this material inspires. ...

Fernando Andrea - Biography Fernando Andrea was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1961 and received his early education at the religious school of "Hermanos Menesianos" in the same city. In the 80's he was trained as a merchant navy officer, serving for a year. Fernando is the third of four brothers. Fascinated with art in general and small figures in particular, he produced his first sculpture being sixteen years old, following the steps of his elder brother with whom he shared a passion for art. Introduced very young in the world of arts, he has been working and studying in a multitude of workshops, where his talent and experience as a sculptor has been forged. He is well known since 1983 as one of the foremost designer s of small size sculptures and highly praised by connoisseurs and collectors. Fernando is also an accomplished musician and an excellent drawer. As a master artist at the Andrea studios, he has met many famous sculptors as Sergio Blanco, Juan Munoz , Eva Riquelme an others ; involved all over the years in different sculpting projects. His outstanding work benefits from his deep historical knowledge, derived from many years of dedicated reading and investigation so as an...

Don Smalley - This man does not use the spoken language as a medium for communication. His world, his word, his art and his mind are expressed in the body of stones. Years ago he heard the Buddhist phrase "Only don't know!" These words, which in Buddhism might be called a turning phrase, point to the awakening of the non-conceptual mind. This state of mind seems to have opened within Don a state of truth and spontaneity- without formal teachings in Buddhism or any other spiritual discipline. He does not want the conceptual mind interfering with the creative process, or with the mysterious ground of direct understanding that informs his sculpture. Each moment, each work can thus be approached with an open and clear mind. Don does not want his work and his experience to be characterized by language, yet in direct conversation with that which is immediately before him. He enters into a dialogue with stone. Don quietly speaks of times of struggle, and grants that these times have given him determination and strength, turning him towards his own interior consciousness. His ease with solitude and his sense of self-sufficiency have fostered in him an atmosphere of stillness and ...

Mark Dedrie - Mark Dedrie, an artist in motion by Robin d'Arcy Shillcock The first things you notice when confronted by work of Belgian sculptor Mark Dedrie (1962) are the stylized shapes and their highly polished finish. Although working within the tradition in which colour is omitted in favour of form, his approach is not so much classical an literal as turning a refined distillation of visual reality into a sculptural statement. He transforms a world of colour and movement into a world of presences, of volumes and elegant lines, and manages weightlessness in heavy bronze. This results in tactile, visually attractive sculptures. There aren't too many sculptors who know how to stylize animal shapes well, and even fewer that seek the degree of refinement Dedrie is striving for. It results in soft and sensual surfaces that underline the exquisite grace of birds like ducks and long-legged waders. There are honestly merely a few I can name. Francois Pompon (France 1855-1933) worked on Rodin's marble sculptures before becoming one of the greatest animal sculptors of the modern era. His work instigated what I call the Movement of Form, comprising the sculptors who preferred to distance themselves from ...