Amazing Driftwood Horse Sculptures by Heather Jansch

Amazing Driftwood Horse Sculptures by Heather Jansch

May 18

Heather Jansch creates absolutely amazing horse sculptures using only found driftwood.

She retells how she has found her own unique art style:

“I went on to the now famous Goldsmiths College in London where sadly, at the time, figurative work was unfashionable. There was a life room, and models too, but no tutors ventured near. They liked and encouraged (typically) 6ft square green canvases with triangles and circles in bold clashing colours and sculptures using planks and blocks of polystyrene.”

“At the end of the first year I was asked to leave the course. I was told that I did not have the stuff that painters were made from and, if lucky, I might scrape a place somewhere to do graphics. My confidence was shattered. I was not interested in graphics. I liked the country, painting and constructing things from what lay around.”

“But that was then, and I went on to achieve my dream by virtue of fate, the generosity of others, luck and determination. I went my own way, not always wisely and not always to accolade from the establishment. I began with painting equestrian commissions and my accuracy easily commanded high prices. Ultimately however I found it restricting, I sorely felt the lack of a degree. I was lost and without a style of my own.”

“I sought advice from Arthur Giadelli, an artist of international standing with a well-deserved reputation for also being a gifted teacher. He told me to go and look at a hedge and draw not what I saw but draw what made a thorn a thorn. And never stop working with horses but find a way to make them mine. I am forever in his debt.”

“I knew that to exhibit prematurely would be unwise; I had to wait until I had unequivocably found what I was seeking. So I continued with commissioned work while also experimenting. Then out of the blue it came in on the tide. Driftwood. It was like a thunderbolt and I was finally ready to show my work to the world. It was driftwood horses.”

© heather jansch, 2009
via: heatherjansch.com

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