After initially training in illustration and employing printmaking as a primary means of expression, I began to explore the properties of wood and metal within 3-dimensional forms. I have been influenced during my travels and experience of ‘primitive sculpture’ and the use of traditional materials. Artistic influences have included Brancusi, Jean Arp, Hepworth, Moore, Picasso, Gabo, Pevsner, Lipchitz, Giacometti and Chilida.

Concerned principally with the creation of abstract and figurative forms my work considers space, mass, and contrasting tensions of solidity and fragility of inner and outer forms. Initially utilising reclaimed materials, I have more recently worked in limestone and marble. Early work involved both modelling as well as direct carving and the creation of forms is both considered and to an extent is influenced by the structural properties of the materials themselves.

More recent work has been concerned with science and art-modelling in metal (for it’s neutral colour) and is influenced by microbiology and the geometrical structural properties of cells and organisms such as bacteria and DNA. The sculptures play with a sense of scale, transforming microscopic forms to a tangible macroscopic scale.

Contact:
neil_bonnett@hotmail.com
www.neilbonnett.co.uk