Lesley Carruthers

Art Education
Btec Diploma Foundation Studies in Art and Design, Colchester Institute, 1997 - 1999

Exhibitions
2005 Buckenham Galleries, Southwold, Suffolk
2004 Buckenham Galleries, Southwold, Suffolk
2003 Head Street Gallery, Halstead, Essex / Colchester Fine Art, Colchester Institute / Colchester Art Society, Buckenham Galleries / Withindale Gallery, Long Melford, Suffolk
2002 Cuckoo Farm Sculpture Trail, Colchester / Colchester Art Society, Minories, Colchester / Life Gallery, Colchester
2001 Trinity Street Studios, Colchester
2000 Colchester Art Society, Minories, Colchester

Statement
I am a sculptor, working in aluminium, and each of my sculptures is unique. The pieces are created in my studio on Mersea Island by experimenting with shapes and forms in polystyrene using hot wire and a glue gun, until a concrete idea begins to evolve. I work intuitively without advance planning allowing the pieces to evolve through the creative process, which is often unpredictable.

To cast them I use the ‘lost polystyrene’ method, working regularly with the sculptor Jonathon Clarke in his studio and foundry in Suffolk. The pieces are packed tightly in sand, then molten aluminium is poured in through feedes, causing the polystyrene to evaporate. The casting is very quick, and the pieces can be dug up half an hour after casting. I then bring the rough castings back to my studio where I grind, sand, file, polish and wax them until I get the finished results I desire, a process many times longer than the act of creation.

I find Mersea Island a particularly inspiring place to work, a place where one is made acutely aware, on a daily basis of the movement of the tides and the cycles of the moon. I am a keen sailor, and the influence of boats, the sea, and the marine landscape can be identified in my work, although my pieces are largely abstract.

Having returned to my love of art after a business career of over 20 years, I now find myself overwhelmingly fulfilled by the process of creation. For me, it is a means of self-expression that is always life affirming.