Bronze And Metal

Suzie studied ceramic art at Brighton and Exeter Colleges of Art and now lives in Devon. She is fascinated in animal character and form and she is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. She works from life wherever possible and is reknowned for her observation of the domestic cat. Pieces are made in ceramic, cold cast bronze resin and hot foundry bronze and pewter.

I grew up in a village near Northampton, where my father taught me the huge enjoyment to be had from really looking at nature and wildlife wherever it was to be found. As my youthful ambitions to own a zoo or work with Jane Van Lawick-Goodall didn’t materialise, I turned my love of birds and animals to something a bit more tangible. Following a Fine Art Foundation course at Northampton School of Art I trained as a landscape architect at Leeds Polytechnic. In 1979 I decided to pursue a career in woodcarving and I was lucky enough to be given a set of old chisels, originally belonging to my great grandfather who had been a cabinet maker in his spare time, and a workbench which had belonged to my grandfather. My first workshop was in Clerkenwell, London, and I began by selling my carvings at the Apple Market in Covent Garden, before starting to sell through galleries, exhibitions and commissions. When I started to have some of my pieces cast in bronze it brought a new dimension to my wo

Michael's work is cast in solid bronze and is made using the 'lost wax' method of casting and finished by the traditional process of patination. The bronzes are then sealed with protective waxm which preserves and enhances the rich layers of patina applied to the surface.