tristan macdougall

In July 2017 Tristan was elected a member of the Society of Portrait Sculptors, which is a representative body of the leading portrait sculptors working in the UK.

Tristan was educated at Winchester School of Art and gained a BA (Hons) in Sculpture. Feeling he needed to continue learning, Tristan travelled to Italy where he studied sculpture, drawing and anatomy in the classical tradition at The Florence Academy of Art. His intensive studies of the human figure, in Florence, provided him with the skills and ability to analyse the structure and form of the human figure in any given pose and to reproduce this in a lively and lifelike manner in clay. He later went on to achieve an MA in History of Art at the University of York, winning a prize and distinction for his dissertation.

“At the centre of all my work is a deep respect and love for the tradition of classical sculpture and I seek to bring a fresh and contemporary voice to this ancient art form”

“I believe that the greatest art is that in which we can lose ourselves, an emotive landscape where we can surrender ourselves with complete abandon to the form of artwork.”

“Our inner worlds can be stimulated and our emotions moved by the subtle articulations of the figure, the rhythm of a line, the movement of the drapery across flesh or the playful intercourse of light and shadow.”

Tristan sees the human figure as providing a structure which invites countless possibilities for composition; for him, it provides a landscape for exploring not just what is visible on the surface, but to explore the human spirit, our inner worlds and our timeless human drives and emotions.

Tristan grew up in rural Northamptonshire and having spent time living in London, Florence and Tokyo, returned to the area in 2009. He currently lives in Oundle with his wife and two children.