^{_{Home of the original life-size driftwood horses}} 

 

^{_{The sculpture garden opens on May 10th & 11th}} 

^{Come for the bluebells, more driftwood sculpture, works for the landscape & our fabulous new fernery. 11 am to 5 pm}

 

for more information & private visits email heather@heatherjansch.com

 

 

 

 

 The new book Bert Jansch - Living with The Legend

^{features at Dartington Ways with Words Literary Festival 2014.}

^{Heather will be in conversation with her editor Andy Christian in the Barn Theatre on July 8th}

^{Until then click here to see a short film where she talks with Bruce May, Bert's manager, the soundtrack is Chambertin.}

 

 

 

Read reviews and a little of how the book was made. 

 

buy it online

 

 

 

 

 Springfield  is the lastest tabletop driftwood horse shown here against my kitchen window. 

 

 

 It is great to stretch my capacity; I am having a wonderful time exploring the characteristics of different breeds whilst at the same time considering the abstract element of form and space held in the interior of figurative sculptures. Other works such as the large heads, Equus, and the leapers like Sweet September depart more obviously from the literal whilst maintaining (I hope) the quality that to me embodies the true nature of horse. As James Joyce famously put it; 

^{'Unsheathe your dagger definitions; Horseness is the Whatness of All Horse...'}

 

^{Integrating a wider range of materials with driftwood and oak into the life-size sulptures has been a fascinating experience; there is more variety of texture and I have been able to escape the limitations made by a steel armature which has allowed a greater fluidity in the work.} 

 

 

^{INTERNATIONAL NEWS} 

 

 

^{I seem not to be alone in finding the new sculptures compelling; the foundry reports a high level of interest in them and there have been some pleasing international developments. In the last two months bronzes have sold to a gallery about to make it's debut on Vancouver Island, I have another proposed for the centre of Brussels in November through January and 'The Young Arabian' driftwood bronze has found a home in Slovakia.  In August 2015 I have a US exhibition in Jackson Hole.}  

 

^{There are new works almost ready for casting, among them 'Dylan' - a fine young cob colt with a great deal of energy. Here he is in the workshop waiting to go off to the foundry. It will be an edition of five available from June.}  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Heather Jansch's Devon Gallery NUMBER TWELVE East Street Ashburton

Opens fridays and Saturdays 10 - 5pm.

 

^{It is a fascinating old building in the historic stannery town of Ashburton.  Ashburton lies to the south of Devon's Dartmoor National Park 15 miles south of Exeter on the A38 and is a busy, thriving, lively community full of interesting small shops making and selling selling unique products and delicacies.} 

^{NUMBER TWELVE is a south Devon gallery specialising in floor and tabletop driftwood & bronze sculpture for home interiors.}  Two recent small driftwood horses, 'Firefly' 24 inches nose to tail & 'Copper Colt', sold as a pair. 

 

^{Heather  writes:}

 

^{"It has always been important to me that art should be accessible but it is sometimes hard to make things affordable. NUMBER TWELVE has made me think on a smaller scale again and, at last, I have begun to draw in earnest after thinking about increasing my range of greeting cards. I began to doodle, there was something about the scale that excited me and I found it hard to stop.}

^{I became even more excited when I got hold of my blow torch and some exterior plywood which I found smells like toast when it burns. So now there are postcard sized original drawings on paper and burntwood works, traditionally known as pokerwork or pyrography.} 

 

^{I have also been working on a new series of larger burnt works like this one in progress, 'After Equus' is slightly smaller than the driftwood reliefs such as 'Heartbreak Horse' and 'Out of a Winter Sea' (Teignbridge district council collection)}

 

 

 

My Dutch photojournalist friends Pieter Paul Koster and Inga Oostenrijk came for a few days.

I was certain they would photograph the thoroughbred under the oak tree, it had caused a sensation at Darley Stud's stallion parade at Newmarket but I was wrong, something else took their eyes.

 

 

 

Something smaller..... 

 

 

'Sugar Babe' is a bronze edition of five and is almost a mirror image of the very first driftwood  bronze foal of mine 'Sugar Plum' which stole more hearts than any at the stallion parade. 

 

 

Here she is looking at herself in the yard, can you tell the bronze from the original?

 

 

 Bronze edition of five no 2/5 is available in May. To see more go to the driftwood bronze page. 

 

Slightly larger is 'Cherry Pie' a bronze edition of five, no 3/5 will be available in April 2014

 

I am hoping to find another property, somewhere with serious barns, a large yard, a few acres, birdsong, clear air and water where I can keep my horses close, have open country to ride through and make a new sculpture garden. 

^'Landing' 

^{Sadly one of my favourite driftwood pieces fell completely to bits in the winter, rotted out as eventually happens with all driftwood work left outside. It did incredibly well to last seven years before the gales got the better of it on my exposed site. Fortunately we had already made a mould and it lives on as Sweet September, immortalised in bronze and now selling strongly.  The one above, 'Landing' was rescued just days before and will also be cast in  bronze.} 

^{Matriarch 11 inches tusk to tail, a bronze edition of 15, at the Ashburton gallery.} 

 

A WORLD AWAY.

 

Some time ago I was visited by the wonderful warm-hearted and enthusiastic Lise Cormier.

Lise is the Chief Executive of Montréal International Mosaïculture and she made me a very interesting proposal.......

She came with the Director of Montréal Botanical Garden, Gilles Vincent and Ginette Marotte, the Vice Mayor to commission a contemporary horse sculpture for Mosaïculture 2013.  www.mosaiculture.ca 

They chose to have an oak life-size mare and foal.  I was very pleased to go and see them installed this June already looking at home among the very new planting in the Botanical Gardens.  

 

Here is the mare, with another equine commissioned by a private client from New Orleans, patiently waiting in the yard for the shippers last May.  They were so similar that they could have been related."

 

 

 

Interview: Heather answering questions about the creative process click here

 

^{For a bit of sheer delight and amazing jewellery visit gorgeous Kate Higham.}

^{www.kate-higham.com}

 

^{Ashburton Cookery School} 

 

The Ugbrooke Connection. 1999 to the present day.

 

http://www.ugbrooke.co.uk

 

 

In 1999 I had been making life-size sculpture for two years  and could barely turn my car in the yard for the accumulation of driftwood surrounding my house.   It would be hard to sell the property without a big clear out but I was unsure how I could do that without interrupting the flow of work.  My last major exhibition had been at The National Trust's Saltram House  near Plymouth  when my original life-size driftwood mare and foal were made in response to the magnificence of the Stable Courtyard.   

At the time I was the only British artist working with driftwood and The Press had gone wild; the massive coverage made the show a resounding success and demand was almost overwhelming. 

 

It was at this point that Lord Clifford came up trumps. 

Ugbrooke House, in common with many other great historic houses, has a traditional stable courtyard and Lord Clifford offered to rent it me together with the two cottages that formed the rear wall. I signed the lease in October.  It was heaven to have such an ideal working space and sculpture poured out of me; I took on a full time assistant and word of my horses spread. Acknowledgement followed when, as part of the millennium celebrations,  I was invited to take part in The Shape of The Century -  One hundred Years of Sculpture in Britain at Canary Wharf in London alongside all the greats; Moore, Frink, Caro, Hepworth. to name few. Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall, bought the full size driftwood horse that became known simply as 'The Eden Horse' which had been built in the Stable Courtyard. Shortly afterwards I bought my current property only two miles from Ugbrooke and started to make my sculpture garden. It is now in it's twelfth year and is starting to look to look quite mature. 

 

A caution: the copyright of any artwork belongs to the artist.  People may take photos of my work for their own enjoyment but not for commercial gain. Thank you to my followers who alerted me and for their concern, I have also been made aware of the number of people now producing driftwood horses.  Whilst I am grateful for the loyalty and indignation expressed, I have to say that I never claimed the discipline of working with driftwood to be mine alone and have always been very open about my working process.  

 

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© heather jansch, 2014  The images included on this website are protected by copyright. They may be reproduced for personal or educational use only. They must not be used in conjunction with any commercial or political activity without the express permission of the artist.