TRAVEL ASSISTANCE FOR ARTISTS

The Sculptures in the Garden Committee have established a ‘Travel Fund’ with the intention of helping a number of successful artists with financial assistance towards travel and installation costs at Sculptures in the Garden 2024, Mudgee NSW. The application is open to all artists.

Applications close on 9th August and successful applicants will be notified by September. Final allocations of the Travel Fund will be made at the Committee’s discretion, with consideration given to, scale and complexity of artwork, cost of transport and installation and the location of Artwork / Artist.

Artists wishing to be considered for funding will need to be a SIG 2024 exhibiting artist, provide a project budget as part of their proposal and can apply for up to $800.00 inc GST per artist.

SCULPTURES IN THE GARDEN – LIVE ARTIST DEMONSTRATIONS

The 13th annual Sculptures in The Garden exhibition will launch on Saturday the 7th of October, running until Sunday the 22nd of October, and this year, the renowned event will include a number of new features to make your SIG experience more immersive than ever before.

An exciting addition to the SIG calendar of events includes live artist demonstrations from some of our long standing exhibitors. A different sculptor will present their craft each weekend of the exhibition on Saturday and Sunday. Sculptors Ian Marr, Gavin Roberts and Damien Lucas will talk about their profession, show visitors what they do, answer questions and invite guests to participate in sculpture creation.

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DAMIEN LUCAS – LIMESTONE CARVING 

Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th October 2023

Damien Lucas is a renowned sculptor from Byron Bay who works in a variety of mediums including clay, plaster, stone, wood, steel and bronze. Lucas enjoys the medium of limestone above other types of stone such as marble and sandstone, as it is softer and easier to carve, lending itself well to the technique of rasping which quickly clarifies the forms.

Damien will demonstrate the process of carving limestone over the opening weekend of SIG 2023. He will begin with a block of limestone already "roughed out" so that visitors will be able to get a glimpse of the basic form and where it might be going. Damien will base his sculpture off a small clay model, or "maquette" to guide his creation. Visitors will be able to see the final idea evident in the maquette, which also provides insight into how one may begin to plan a limestone carving with direction to follow.

Visitors will have the opportunity to see the process Damien follows when working with limestone, and to discuss the different types of tools used including mallets, chisels, and rasps.

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GAVIN ROBERTS – TIMBER ART SPOON CARVING

Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th October 2023

Gavin Roberts comes from a background of architecture and construction and finds simple pleasure out of creating. An enjoyment for problem solving and working in timber, steel and concrete gives Gavin plenty of opportunity to find the flowing forms and objects from often brutalist products.

Gavin will be demonstrating a form of sustainable small sculpture – The Art Spoon – demonstrating how a simple pruning from a tree can be turned into a usable small sculpture spoon with just an Axe and knife. See and hear how creating a sustainable keepsake of time and place can be rewarding both emotionally and visually.

Gavin will also touch on the art of Kikezuri, a style of Japanese “wood shaving” (or shaping) in which small sculptural shapes and forms are created for the simple purpose of making
something you can keep in your pocket or hold in your hand. Wood shaping is different from conventional wood carving in the fact that you are not in charge of deciding the end result, but rather you must allow the wood to guide you as you shave it as it is meant to be shaped.

It must be noted this demonstration comes with a warning from Roberts – Carving can be addictive! Consider yourself warned.

IAN MARR – SANDSTONE CARVING 

Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd October 2023

Ian Marr draws and carves inscriptions in slate and sandstone, before decorating and gilding them. This art form is part of a continuous interest in drawing and painting, in response to poetic qualities in the environment and in the canon of literature.

As a medium, inscription is an enterprise that relatively few artists employ and is an art of ideas and suggestion rather than imitating and copying the realistic appearances of people and things.

Visitors will be able to watch Marr using a variety of hand tools to carve letters in slate and sandstone, as well as drawing on copper sheets and gilding them with 23 carat gold.

WINNERS OF SCULPTURES IN THE GARDEN 2021 ANNOUNCED

Mudgee and regional NSW’s most renowned outdoor sculpture exhibition, Sculptures in The Garden, enjoyed a hugely successful first week at ‘Rosby’ with visitors purchasing over 50% of the artworks available from the two-week exhibition.  All works will remain on site until the end of the exhibition.

The winning acquisitions were announced by selection panellist and local Councillor, Sam Payne, on Friday evening in front of a crowd of exhibiting artists and Friends of Sculptures in the Garden.

The top acquisition winners included:

• $25,000 SIG & MWRC Acquisition Prize :: Ahead by Harrie Fasher (Portland)

• $10,000 Friends of SIG Acquisition Prize :: Pensive by Nicole O'Regan (Sodwalls)

• $5,000 Moolarben Acquisition Prize :: Runner by François Jaggi (Armidale)

These three acquisitions prizes will all be added to the Lawson Park Sculpture Walk – the real legacy of SIG. The Lawson Park Sculpture Walk began in 2013 as an initiative by Sculptures in the Garden to contribute public art to the community that enhances its public domain via the Arts in Central West NSW.  Since then, Sculptures in the Garden has contributed more than 23 acquisition works to the Lawson Park Sculpture Walk, a gift to the region that is a drawcard for visitors and locals.

Other prizes won included:

• $5,000 Buchanan Artistic Merit Acquisition Prize for Small Sculpture :: The Great Escape by Alan Kuczynski (Seaforth). The Great Escape will be displayed permanently in the grounds of the new Mudgee Hospital. 

• $500 People's Choice Award :: Coral Queendom by Katherine Castillo Alfarez (Manly)

• $300 The Sculptors Society Artistic Merit Prize :: Sway by Annika Thurbon (Cardiff Heights)

The Great Escape by Alan Kuczynski, Coral Queendom by Katherine Castillo Alfarez, Sway by Annika Thurbon

With artists hailing from across Australia, the breadth of talent who entered the event this year was of exceptional quality and demonstrated the exhibition’s reputation as the leading sculpture event in regional Australia.

The exhibition will run daily until the 21st of November from 10am–4pm at Rosby in Mudgee.