New Romantic Order: 5 Sculptures
Each sculpture is an episode that collectively forms the new romantic order. The eternal romance is caught within the growing wood. The artist is searching for perfection in the exquisite with modern figurative forms using traditional techniques to create a harmony of carving. The romance is the ever-living wood and its immortality is a metaphor for love. The leaning movement creates the rhythm. The static splits are the woods natural diversions, which highlight the drama and add to the tension while being sympathetic to the pattern of the grain. Their form, medium and creation are a natural revolution against the ready-made. Through perfecting his rare skills as a traditional wood sculptor Crouch’s main ambition is to be able to communicate, in a sincere way, the natural beauty of the history of sculpture within the union of nature and man.
All the figures are made from a cordwood’s length of Kentish sweet chestnut and through the natural growth of this coppice wood the artist has worked to emphasis the resulting natural order. The forms have been sculpted within the seasoning process in the same ways the Romans would have used carbonisation. The colour highlights the burnt ashes of the completion of this technique. A year is needed before the work can be completed as the main body of the heartwood is removed to allow the wood to shrink to its relaxed state. This development respects the necessary amount of time to season as its worked on while the tree is growing and finally settles as if nature intended.
Much like a scene of a drama the five sculptures are playful, alluring and sensual in their description of romance, temptation, union, heartache and isolation. The titles are Incident, Pendulum, Demeanour, Bernini’s Eden and Boundary. Through the shape and curves of the different forms the figures are a more contemporary and passionate descendant of the traditional form. The muscles and bodies of the figures are formed by an essential versatile approach in working within the unique grain of sweet chestnut. While remaining discreet and sensitive the series of sculpture leave the wandering viewer with a complex story of an energetic romance.
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Purpose and Memory
This is a visual autobiography surrounding the natural drama of the evolution of the artist’s life. The two women represent his earth mothers centred on the artist himself. This image as the root of the knot has been emphasised to highlight their genetic combination, chaotic but with a natural order. The purpose and memory are verifications of his structural respect and nostalgic love of his personal growth.
This wall-mounted sculpture is made from Kentish oak. Worked within the seasoning process it allows the wood to be carved with nature’s guidance. By working in this way the artist is able to work in a closer partnership with nature. A great understanding of the pattern of this hardwood’s grain has also helped form this complex but balanced piece.
This sculpture shows off the experienced skills of the artist revealing a gentle humanity in depicting the gratitude to his own evolution of romance and creation. By this statement he becomes eternally inseparable with the subject matter. This metaphor belies his own drama.
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Stone boats don’t float
Series 1 - 4 maquettes
This is a reaction to finding a perfect treasure on the beach. It celebrates the natural form of eroded flint pebbles that are in abundance surrounding the Kent coastline. The theme is formed from the theory that probably everybody’s first acceptance of sculpture is through finding and appreciating an imaginatively shaped rock.
Formed from chipping away at a block of plaster using a selection of tools, they gradually emerge through the principals of erosion. The plaster is always held by hand and coloured as faded flint.
Through the sight and touch of these unique and perfected little sculptures they highlight the fact that art was the original form of communication necessary for humanity’s survival. This early instinct of intelligence is the individual’s spiritual gateway of a sense for the development of thought and communication through imagination.
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Series 2 - 6 maquettes
This is a reaction to finding a perfect treasure on the beach. It celebrates the natural form of eroded flint pebbles that are in abundance surrounding the Kent coastline. The theme is formed from the theory that probably everybody’s first acceptance of sculpture is through finding and appreciating an imaginatively shaped rock.
Formed from chipping away at a block of plaster using a selection of tools they gradually emerge through the principals of erosion. The plaster is always held by hand and coloured as faded flint.
Through the sight and touch of these unique and perfected little sculptures they highlight the that fact that art was the original form of communication necessary for humanity’s survival. This early instinct of intelligence is the individual’s spiritual gateway of a sense for the development of thought and communication through imagination.
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Lyrical Muse : 12 Maquettes
This is a series of small sculptures based on the variation of the theme of the musical and decorative. This is a modern take on the classical poses of the reclining nude. It’ is the ultimate embryo of an idea of the separate parts of the body being musical instruments.
They are created from a small block of plaster in the hand and are cut, sawn, chiseled and carved using a French hammer and rifler. They are then painted with graphite to add to the silhouette of shape.
This series of maquettes are an inspirational culmination of a lifetime of sculptural study of anatomy. As one-off originals they have an evocative and mystical melody that result in organic and elegant shapes. This creates a fresh, harmonic and graceful impression of figurative sculpture.
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Patrick Crouch – Sculptor
1954- Born
1970-73 apprenticeship with Edward Bainbridge-Copnall MBE PPRBS
1970-72 studied sculpture and anatomy with Tony Gray FRSA RBS
1970-73 studying at Sir John Cass School of Art.
1973-75 studied construction with Vincent Arnall, sculptor and Church Restoration with Tom Robbins
1974-75 Attending John Cass School of Art.
1976-79 Attending St.Martin’s College of Art for degree in Sculpture BAHons
1982 -87 Teaching sculpture in Adult Education at Tunbridge wells, Rochester, Gillingham, Sittingbourne, Ramsgate, Ashford, Folkestone and Deal.
1988- 2011. Lecturing and teaching sculpture at Canterbury College, the John Makepeace school of Craftsmen, St.Martin’s college of Art, Kent institute of Design and Christchurch university.
Present 2011- Teaching at Pure Form, Canterbury, the Chelsea Art School and lecturing at The Tate.
Some of the places he has exhibited at :
Royal Academy
Royal College of Art, London
Athanasia, York Street, London
Bacharach Interiors, Lavender Hill, London
Chelsea Farmers Market, London
Christopher Hull Gallery, London
Festival of London Sculpture Show, Alexandra Palace
HMS President River Thames
Westminster Boating Lodge
SAGE Chelsea Harbour
Chelsea Walk, 122 Kings Road, London
Sculpture Installation at Harbour Yard, Chelsea Harbour
New Metropole, Folkestone
Mall Galleries, London
Wapping Artists, London
Chenil Art Gallery, Kings Road
Contemporary Art Fair, Bath
Eastern Rooms, Rye
Sculpture at Marygate, York
Sculpture for Harlow Gardens, Yorkshire
Drew Gallery, Canterbury
GAEC Gallery Gillingham
Thames Eye, World Trade Centre
Trinity Arts Centre, Tunbridge
Daring Compositions, Kings Road, London
Morley Gallery, London
Sculpture Unlimited, Fulham, London
Chelsea Flower Show, London
Roy Miles Gallery, Mayfair, London
Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury
Canterbury Cathedral
Art London, Chelsea, London
London Art Fair, Islington, London
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