Nicola Godden

Ideas to create sculpture come from anywhere. Creative ideas can come from seeing a piece of flint or bone found while out walking, or even from a dream, some mythology or something briefly half seen while travelling somewhere. The ‘Eve’ and ‘Torso’ series of bronze figures began when Nicola Godden picked up a beautiful piece of flint that looked rather like a female torso. I began by making a very small figure hardly bigger than the original stone and then did the series of figures which got larger and larger. She made the original larger artwork in plaster as it is possible to create the smoothest of finishes. She enjoys people wanting to touch the finished work.
She creates the original pieces of sculpture in clay or plaster because it is fast and she likes to get the ideas out quickly. She starts with a metal supporting armature and use aluminium wire to produce the rough shape she is after and go from there, usually adding clay or plaster as fast as she can. She rarely draws her ideas before working as she likes to keep the spontaneity and get ideas as she works.
Most of her finished artwork is cast in bronze. Light reflects well off the surface and it can be irresistible to touch. Casting bronze is complex and time consuming and she tries to be involved at each stage of the process; this metal is timeless and has its own fascinating history and, of course, should outlive us all.
Over the last few years she has been excited by the mythological figure of Icarus and have produced a series of ‘Icarus’ pieces. These ideas began when she was learning how to fly (in an Ikarus C42 fixed wing microlight) and the combination of man and wings is so compelling that she can’t see an end to this period. She has made eleven sculptures of Icarus so far.

contact info:
Email: ted@thedorsetcopperfish.co.uk

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Nicola Godden

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