philip hearsey

“After leaving Camberwell School of Art in the late 1960`s I somehow got involved in the building and joinery industry, which, as chance would have it, laid the foundations for a lifetime career in architectural, interior and furniture design.

I learnt some invaluable practical skills before turning single mindedly to design in 1975 but never quite lost touch with the practical aspects and I always maintained a workshop where I could experiment with materials and develop new ideas and techniques.

The wheel has turned full circle and I have forsaken architecture to devote most of my time to hands-on work and the creation of individual furniture pieces and bronze table sculpture.

Working in bronze involves many procedures, from making original patterns in plaster, wood, or fibreglass; refining rough castings, cutting, piercing and carving; occasionally welding, polishing and patinating. These are some of techniques that I undertake, having experimented, learnt and practised extensively over the last thirty years.

The linear discipline engrained by my architectural background inevitably informs my work but I am more powerfully inspired by forms and rhythms encountered in the landscape; most notably, where I live and work in Herefordshire, on the edge of England where it is interwoven with the Welsh borders.

What is in my head when I make the work is deeply personal. What matters to me is that the work engages the imagination and connects with a deep-rooted, instinctive appreciation of simple forms”.