The Influence of Place : How Landscapes Shape My Sculptures

A sense of place is more than just geography; it’s the way an environment embeds itself in your bones, how it seeps into your thoughts and how it manifests in creative work. My sculptures are shaped not just by abstract form or material, but by the visceral experience of place, by the wind blasted beaches of the east coast, by the quiet density of pine woods, by the shifting light on a wide horizon. These environments, in all their ruggedness and subtlety, are an intrinsic part of my artistic language.

Place as a Physical Influence

Walking on the beach, I absorb the textures and rhythms of the shifting landscape. The way the wind carves ripples into the sand, how the tide pulls and reshapes the shoreline, the layered erosion of cliffs, these patterns echo in the forms I create. Some sculptures carry the torn, gouged quality of a landscape shaped by natural forces. Others take on the fluid movement of waves or wind, with spirals and curves that feel like a frozen moment of flow.

Even the materials I work with are a reflection of place. Weathered steel carries the rust of time, much like the iron rich sands of a beach. Bronze, with its patina shifting over time, echoes the oxidation and transformation found in nature. These material choices aren’t just practical; they’re a way of embedding the memory of place into the sculpture itself.

The Emotional Resonance of Space

There’s something about standing on an open beach with the wind tearing through you something that makes you feel small and expansive at the same time. That sensation of exposure and solitude, of being both insignificant and deeply present, is something I try to distil into my work.

Similarly, moving from a vast, open space into an enclosed one, like a dense pine wood or a hidden shelter nook, creates an entirely different emotional response. The hushed quiet, the filtered light, the sensation of being wrapped in something protective yet slightly mysterious. In my sculptures, I often play with contrasts, open, sweeping gestures paired with tight, interwoven structures to evoke that same shift in perception.

Place as a Source of Patterns and Forms

My process of using automatic drawing to summon up patterns that feel deeply connected to natural landscapes. Contours of hills, the branching of trees, the spirals found in shells, all these forms emerge instinctively, shaped by years of walking through and observing different environments. I don’t set out to consciously recreate a landscape, but its presence is there, ingrained in the marks I make and the sculptures that follow.

The Changing Nature of Place

One of the most fascinating things about place is its constant state of transition. Beaches shift with the tides. Cliffs erode, revealing layers of history. Forests change with the seasons, moving from the sparse lines of winter to the dense, tangled growth of summer. This idea of change, of transition, is something I think about a lot in my work. A sculpture might capture a form in the process of becoming or dissolving, a moment of movement caught in metal or clay.

The Unseen Layers of Place

Beyond the physical and emotional aspects, places hold histories, stories and echoes of the past. The coastline I walk today was once trodden by ancient humans. The cliffs hold fossils from millions of years ago. Even in a modern, urban setting, layers of history exist beneath the surface. These unseen narratives, what is buried, what is forgotten, what lingers in the atmosphere, are an underlying current in my work.

I often think about how a sculpture can carry that same sense of layered history. The way patina forms over time, the way surfaces show wear, these are marks of presence and passage, just like the lines carved into rock by wind and water.

Conclusion : Sculpture as a Place Within Itself

Ultimately, a sculpture is its own kind of place, a contained space where all these influences converge. When someone engages with a piece, they bring their own experiences of place to it. The textures, forms and compositions might remind them of somewhere familiar or they might create a completely new emotional landscape.

For me, creating sculpture is a way of capturing something that can’t be put into words, a feeling, a moment, a sense of connection to the world around us. The landscapes that shape me are embedded in every piece and through my work, I hope to share the experience of these places in a way that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.