Artists - Sculpture

George Kockott

pebbles & wood

George Kockott has worked with wood all his life. First he was a forester, then he served a five year apprenticeship as a carpenter/joiner, where he refined his skills in cabinetmaking and design. His holistic approach to sculpture today has been influenced by his experience gained in yacht construction, earth building, development agriculture, nature conservation, and wilderness leadership. Driftwood Studios was established at Rainbow Valley near East London, South Africa, in July 2007, as a sculpture studio . Here, George produces work in a variety of media, with a preference for materials which are recycled, sourced locally and characteristic of the Eastern Cape. In 2008, he was a finalist for the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum Biennial Award.

Jan Sweeney

lost wax bronze

Jan Sweeney first went to Africa in 1985; fell in love with it and now lives between Zimbabwe and Somerset; hence her mixture of African and English wildlife. Jan uses the lost wax method of casting and all her major editions are limited, numbered and signed. Her smaller pieces are unlimited but are all signed. The key to Jan’s success lies in her initial drawings. She is a superb draftswoman, and from her veterinary father she learnt the anatomical workings of animals, which shows in her final pieces. Her bronzes live and breathe and are never stiff or lifeless. She captures the raw power of speed and movement, and each portrayal embodies the characteristics of the beast. Jan has won many awards and honours for her work and after exhibiting extensively in UK and South Africa, has work in many illustrious private and public collections. 

Allen Hallett

pewter

Maridadi is the pewter arm of bronze wildlife artist Allen Hallett. Allen grew up in the highlands of Kenya before becoming a senior game ranger in the wildlife reserves of Zululand where he had the opportunity to study Africa’s wildlife first hand. He now lives and works in the magnificent Natal Midlands, overlooking the Albert Falls Dam and undertakes many field trips to inspire this creativity. Often selling through Christies in London, Allen’s bronzes are now in private collections all over the world. In order to make his work more accessible to a wider audience, he has begun casting in pewter, and his figurines are now highly collectable.

Birdwoods

scrap metal sculpture

Louise Stobart was a farmer’s daughter and a farmer’s wife, who lived most of her life in the rural bush of Zimbabwe. But like many, she and her family were forced to relocate and now reside in New Zealand. When in Zimbabwe, Louise, who had no formal art training, formed a very successful company called Birdwoods. Since her departure, Birdwoods has been run by Joy Denton. Louise does all the designing, and a skilled team of craftsmen and women weld her creations in scrap metal from old oil drums. Each piece is made by hand, and therefore unique. While rust is an inherent part of each sculpture given the nature of the base material, each sculpture has been treated to prevent further deterioration and can happily sit in or outdoors.

Karen Sinovitch

driftwood

Aside from being a well-known South African ceramic artist, Karen Sinovich is also a sculptor who searches her surroundings for natural objects with which to build her creations.
As with her ceramics, Karen i sinspired by the ocean, beaches and rocks around her, from where she sources all manner of treasures. Her work is naive and simple and portrays humour. Her favourite subject of boats, using driftwood, remind her of days spent at the seaside.

Mark Forbes

resin bronze & wood

Mark Forbes was born in Johannesburg, the son of a sculptor. Whilst taking his B.A. in Fine Arts at the University of South Africa, he undertook his military training, and was transferred to the Pretoria art department. Here he learnt lost wax bronze casting and he designed and sculpted many trophies, exhibition pieces and monuments for the army. On leaving the military in 1982, he held his first public exhibition in Johannesburg. The success of this led to a number of corporate commissions. In 1992, Mark launched his ‘Bush Calls’ range of wildlife sculpture. These are ‘cold-cast bronzes’, cast in a resin and then given a bronze finish. The sculptures are then often mounted on wild olive bases, which is an indigenous wood of South Africa.

Tessa Collins

wire

Tessa Collins, describes herself as “a grumpy old woman”, but she is in fact a talented local sculptress from Prince Albert, RSA. She makes exceptional trees from wire, each one being unique and based on real arboreal specimans. She specialises in acacias and baobabs and they can be hung on the wall as a 3D sculpture.

Guruve

stone sculpture

Guruve specialises in stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, often known as the Shona art movement. Shona sculpture is widely accepted as the most important art movement to emerge from Africa in the twentieth century. In 1957, Frank McEwen was appointed as the first curator of the new National Gallery in Harare. He had previously been curator at the Rodin Museum, Paris and had links with various artists of the time, including Picasso and Matisse. McEwen encouraged the artists to look inward, to find their so-called tribal sub consciousness and express it through their art. Over the following fifty years, many first and second generation artists became famous worldwide. Some sculptors now command exorbitant prices and many high-profile international celebrities collect. Other sculptors are less well known, but their work no less appealing, largely due to the tactile nature of the very material in which they sculpt. 

Scrap Metal Sculpture

Founded by Arthur Azevedo in the early 1970’s, scrap metal sculpture has become an art form synonymous with Zimbabwe, and has now spread across the border into South Africa. Long before recycling became trendy, resourceful African artists were seeing the potential in used oil drums, nuts, bolts and plumbing pipes, and the result is an continuing creation of humorous and realistic pieces which provide a topical statement in the decor of a room or the ambiance of a garden setting. Whilst rust is an inherent part of any scrap metal sculpture we recommend an annual coating of a clear anti-rust varnish if the piece is to reside outdoors. The art of recycled scrap metal has now extended right across Africa