British born April Shepherd delves into the natural world of wildlife with her art observing their: poses, gestures, movements and ‘awareness’ in sculpted form. Understanding these animals has won her success & recognition as a contemporary artist and in particular with her equine sculptures.
She is also artistically talented in other mediums and her limited edition sketches on our
British born April Shepherd delves into the natural world of wildlife with her art observing their: poses, gestures, movements and ‘awareness’ in sculpted form. Understanding these animals has won her success & recognition as a contemporary artist and in particular with her equine sculptures.
She is also artistically talented in other mediums and her limited edition sketches on our website - ‘Backward Glance’ & ‘Double Take’ - are testament to her skill with graphite.
April uses clay, resin & bronze to create her work, materials many of our artists use e.g. Alexander Millar’s sculpture are Bronze & Resin but she often pushes the limits of what each material is capable of artistically. She somewhat uniquely forgoes armature with her work as she feels this brings life to her sculpture and allows her more control of the direction of shape & form.
April focus on the nature of weightlessness, that even a strong and powerful equine body can break out of its solid form with movement and expression.
Shepherd is known for her ‘Smoke Fired’ horses and the smoke gives the surface a natural ‘resinous variegation’- essentially different coloured zones & tones in the resin. These then fuse into one continuous surface canvas, leaving a permanent record of the fire impact on the piece. Weightlessness is further added to with the perspex mount, giving the horse its energetic final form.
Like many artists, Kerry Darlington come to mind, April is inspired by a love of ancient literature, myths & legends.
Her recent work has included a series of 6 limited edition dog sculptures and we are interested to see how they are received by her followers.
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