Sculptors who use natural
materials in their work.
Starting points
Deer hounds made from hay, mud and graphite.
Many sculptures use different
starting points. Sally Matthews
says “Everyone has their own
reasons for using animals in
art, but for me I always go
back to the animals
themselves for inspiration. My
love of them, their different
form, movement, smell and
nature are the reasons for my
making them. Their nature,
even of a domesticated or
trained animal is unpredictable
and wild, their presence is
always enlivening. I want my
work to remind people of our
need for animals and the
example their nature provides
us with.”
Sally Matthews
Sally Matthew is based in
Wales. She is a sculptor
who often uses natural
materials in her work.
She says “The materials I
use such as coire fibre,
cow muck, steel, copper,
wood, all have a
relevance to the subject I
am making. They usually
have a texture and colour
that means no surface
has to be added.”
3 Ponies made from steel.
3 Ponies made from felted
sheep wool.
Serena de la Hey
Serena de la Hey uses
willow in sculptures.
Having worked all over
the world on a range of
projects, she is best
known for the Willow
Man, a 12 metre
sculpture next to the M5
motorway, near
Bridgwater in Somerset,
UK.
Willow man 2001
Metaphors - 1993
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson was one of the founders of the art form known as land art,
and is most well known for the Sprial Jetty, 1970, located in the Great Salt
Lake, Utah. This monumental earthwork was inspired in part when
Smithson saw the Great Serpent Mound, a Pre-Columbian Indian
monument in south western Ohio.
Land art takes using natural materials to it’s extreme. Materials such as
rocks sticks, soil, plants and so on are often used, and the works frequently
exist in the open and are left to change and erode under natural conditions.
Particularly large works are sometimes known as earthworks.
Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April
2005. Photograph by Soren Harward
Henry Moore
The arch (1969) is made out of
bronze. It is outside the Hiroshima
City Museum of Contemporary Art
in Japan.
Henry Moore was born in
1898 in Castleford, Yorkshire.
His sculptures were abstract.
That means that his
sculptures often showed his
ideas and feelings, rather
than a clear figure or thing.
His sculptures were often
smooth, included empty
hollows and were often
carved out of stone or wood.
Can you find out about any other
sculptors that use natural
materials in their work?
You could use:
•The school library to find more information.
•The internet.
Can you think of any other way we could find out about
sculptors' that use natural materials to make their
sculptures?