Tree

Giclee print on 100% cotton rag paper or canvas

Jan 2008

Marina Graham

CALNE, WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND

I Studied Modern Languages at Cambridge (French and German) and then left to do Sculpture and printmaking at Bath Academy of Art at Corsham. These two institutions were worlds apart. I still feel fortunate to have experienced formative influences which encouraged both independent analytical thought and creative imagination but I have always known it would be a life‘s work bringing these two worlds together. There are many references in European literature to an ancient deep split in Western culture.

My sculpture while at Corsham was exclusively figurative at a time when this was deeply unfashionable in the art world. I was prepared to pay the price for this and did. The art critic Peter Fuller once wrote an article in Aspects Magazine defending my work. It caused a big argument in the Sculpture School, and when I spoke to Peter Fuller at the final party in 1986 before the art college moved from Corsham to Bath, he told me I had caused him a lot of trouble!   The first bronzes I ever cast were at this Sculpture School in Corsham, where James Castle first taught me the basics of bronze casting.  None of thecontroversy did me any favours at the time, but it has always been a pleasure to me to belong to such a diverse network of artists and characters as the one that has emerged from Bath Academy of Art at Corsham.

Despite doing work that was considered ideologically unsound (and historically anachronistic) at College, I was offered a post as a resident artist at my degree show. But this was 1983 and the post failed to materialize when government funding for it was cut at the last minute. My family had emigrated to South Africa, and I left to spend a year in Heidelberg, West Germany, followed by eight months in South Africa.

 I returned a couple of years later to England with the intention of working as a translator in order to survive as an artist.

 In fact I worked mainly as a freelance sculptor during the 1980s as there were more opportunities around than I had expected, particularly private commisions for portraits.

During this time I also worked as an assistant in the bronze foundries of the sculptors Andy Mitchell in Alderley Edge, Glos and Richard Cowdy in Calne. My bronze figures have all been cast in one of these two foundries. Most of my bronzes are privately owned. Some are owned by Jeremy Walsh, a businessman who was a close friend and supported my artwork during the late '80s and early '90s.

In the nineties I found myself doing more of a mixture of work, modelling figures for commercial companies such as Synapse Modelmaking in London, and restoration work, such as the 18 th Century Italian stucco work at Prior Park in Bath, which had been destroyed by a fire. I also worked on lifesize figures for McAndroids, when they moved from London to Chippenham.  Work I did for this company is on display on Sentosa Island in Singapore and in the Douglas Museum in the Isle of Man.

My adventures in life have often led me to interesting people and places and I have spent time in France, Germany and Italy.

I organised and exhibited in ‘12 Sculptors on Common Ground ' in June 2000 with Deborah van der Beek in her garden in Lacock. The range of work shown included conceptual art, abstract form, decorative and representational art. This was partly supported by North Wilts District Council and I subsequently became a founder member of ArtsNoW, which was just getting going at the time and which currently runs the new Pound Arts Centre.

I like Wiltshire and now live in Calne, where I have had a small workshop built.

I no longer make my living from my art, but am still active and expect this to be possible again in the near future. 

My work has been shown at various venues in London and the West Country, including;

Rooksmoor Gallery Bath

Brian Sinfield Gallery Burford

Shurini Gallery, St James's, London

Royal West of England Academy

Westminster Society of Women Artists, Westminster Gallery, London

Recent group exhibitions include one in County Wiclow, Ireland in 2003 and recently  'Corsham Revisited' in June 2007 in Wiltshire, England.

My  website can now be found at marinagraham.co.uk , where all my portraits and many figures can be seen. I can be contacted via this website with any enquiries.

I am also a member of Saatchi Online, Artmesh, and also Artreview, where my 'Witchtree' image, icluded here,  has just been chosen for their 'Featured Artworks' collection.

Witchtree

Giclee print on 100% cotton rag paper or canvas

Jan 2008

Rising

Giclee print on 100% cotton rag paper or canvas

Jan 2008

Breast and Palms

Giclee print on 100% cotton rag paper or canvas

Jan 2008

.