Cotswold Copper Top 20

'Cotswold Copper Top 20' is part of a series of small works made during the Covid-19 lockdown. They explore the relationship between the natural anthropomorphic spirit of limestone boulders, with material intrusions of soot, paint, graphite, gold and copper leaf.

In this work, the Jurassic Cotswold stone formed over millennia from skeletal marine fragments is smothered in a micron veneer of beaten copper. The fragile, shimmering, pink-orange copper leaf pressed into the pale matt stone mass differentiates and recognises its host. Both clawed from the earth for service, these modest materials associated with utility and physical hardship are valued and elevated through the sculptural decision-making process and ornamental technique of gilding.

The natural and manmade vie for balance, and playfully activate light and our perception of scale as both decorated object and compressed landscape. Particularly in these times of domestic isolation, the boulders heighten or frame our material experience and relationship to nature through exploration of their terrain, as individuals, pairs or groups in dialogue.