Sculptor who picks up her ideas on a Gower beach

Her work travels the world and has been bought by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gary Rhodes and Melvyn Bragg. But sculptor Helen Sinclair draws much of her inspiration from the Gower beach near her home. She tells Jenny White about her unique way of working

Countless artists have been inspired to capture the curve of Rhossili beach, its hazy light and the craggy snout of Worm’s Head.

But Helen Sinclair is different. She collects the minutiae of the place: the pieces of plastic, driftwood and other flotsam washed ashore by the roaring waves of the Atlantic.

Back in her Rhossili studio, she uses these to make figurative sculptures that are cast in stone-resin or bronze. The casting process means the finished pieces are a step removed from the materials that made them, but their shapes are still easily discernible.

“Occasionally I might have to fashion the wood slightly but I try not to do that,” she says.

“The actual wood as it stands introduces so much personality, history and mystique of its own into the piece. Every time I find something, it gives me a new vocabulary to work with.”

Traditional materials like clay and plaster are also fundamental to her work, as are mixed media including cardboard and paper. But beach-found objects have assumed a growing importance in recent years. It has been an instinctive development.

“The materials chose me, in a way. I happened to find a couple of interesting pieces on the beach one morning, and I had them hanging around in the workshop until suddenly they demanded to be used.

“I was playing with them, really. In some sense they do half the work for you – they suggest things you wouldn’t have thought of without finding the pieces first.”

Exhibition at Attic Gallery, Swansea, until March 29

See full article at IC Wales