Artists Statement
Artstone Garden Sculpture is a joint enterprise by Christine Baxter the sole sculptor of the company and her business partner and co founder, designer Alex Brown. We specialise in figurative garden sculpture with a personal and authentic touch.
Artstone Sculpture is on permanent display to the public at Wyndcliffe Court Gardens, Nr Chepstow. A grade II listed garden designed by one of the best known Arts and Crafts garden designers H. Arvay Tipping, friend of Gertrude Jykill.
Christine Baxter, background and development as a sculptor:
At the age of six I remember my grandfather digging some clay out of the garden and us making a little dog together. We then dried it out by the fire and the next day we put it in the fire to fire it. It exploded! But I was hooked, drawing and making anything 3D.
My foundation was at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. I was very lucky to be taught by an inspring tutor - Mike Gillespei - who as a young sculptor, was assistant to Epstein, during that year I made about 8 portrait busts of friends and anyone that would sit for me, exhibiting my work at Gonville and Caius College at the end of the year. I loved modelling in clay and was advised that the place to go was Camberwell.
I was lucky enough to be accepted and it was wonderful. We made full sized figures, portrait busts loads of life drawing, technical exercises such as scaling up and down as well as bronze foundry casting and arc welding courses. I then combined my studies with an art history degree.
When I left Camberwell I looked in the paper and couldn’t find that “Sculptors Wanted” advert! I worked at various day jobs, carrying on with sculpture on a small scale (no studio) in my spare time until someone put me onto model making for the toy and giftware industry as a way of earning my living. I worked full time in this industry, getting fairly well known at it for about 12 years.
This allowed me to build my own studio in Gloucestershire and start to work on the type of work that I wanted to do; modelling from the figure in wax and clay. I love the human form; the beauty in the female body, that quiet introspection of a moment, not overtly aware of herself, just being. When I am making a piece I am thinking about balance, gravity, volume and grace, all of these are important for a successful piece. Then there is an added dimension, the material, the act of making, should it be consciously finished or show the unconscious marks of the making and the thinking that goes into its creation. There is something very special, a bit like an impressionist painting when the unconscious making marks are left visible. I want the viewer of the piece to experience some of the love of beauty and grace that I understood whilst I was making the piece.
Lastly, I am very interested in the material into which the piece is cast, how this changes the appearance and perception of a sculpture, the colour of the patina can change its look enormously, all these have to be carefully considered.
Artstone Garden Sculpture is a joint enterprise by Christine Baxter the sole sculptor of the company and her business partner and co founder, designer Alex Brown. We specialise in figurative garden sculpture with a personal and authentic touch.
Artstone Sculpture is on permanent display to the public at Wyndcliffe Court Gardens, Nr Chepstow. A grade II listed garden designed by one of the best known Arts and Crafts garden designers H. Arvay Tipping, friend of Gertrude Jykill.
Christine Baxter, background and development as a sculptor:
At the age of six I remember my grandfather digging some clay out of the garden and us making a little dog together. We then dried it out by the fire and the next day we put it in the fire to fire it. It exploded! But I was hooked, drawing and making anything 3D.
My foundation was at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. I was very lucky to be taught by an inspring tutor - Mike Gillespei - who as a young sculptor, was assistant to Epstein, during that year I made about 8 portrait busts of friends and anyone that would sit for me, exhibiting my work at Gonville and Caius College at the end of the year. I loved modelling in clay and was advised that the place to go was Camberwell.
I was lucky enough to be accepted and it was wonderful. We made full sized figures, portrait busts loads of life drawing, technical exercises such as scaling up and down as well as bronze foundry casting and arc welding courses. I then combined my studies with an art history degree.
When I left Camberwell I looked in the paper and couldn’t find that “Sculptors Wanted” advert! I worked at various day jobs, carrying on with sculpture on a small scale (no studio) in my spare time until someone put me onto model making for the toy and giftware industry as a way of earning my living. I worked full time in this industry, getting fairly well known at it for about 12 years.
This allowed me to build my own studio in Gloucestershire and start to work on the type of work that I wanted to do; modelling from the figure in wax and clay. I love the human form; the beauty in the female body, that quiet introspection of a moment, not overtly aware of herself, just being. When I am making a piece I am thinking about balance, gravity, volume and grace, all of these are important for a successful piece. Then there is an added dimension, the material, the act of making, should it be consciously finished or show the unconscious marks of the making and the thinking that goes into its creation. There is something very special, a bit like an impressionist painting when the unconscious making marks are left visible. I want the viewer of the piece to experience some of the love of beauty and grace that I understood whilst I was making the piece.
Lastly, I am very interested in the material into which the piece is cast, how this changes the appearance and perception of a sculpture, the colour of the patina can change its look enormously, all these have to be carefully considered.
