Robin has her studio in the countryside of Northamptonshire from where she travels widely to find her subjects in their natural surroundings. There, she can uncover what they are, how it feels to like to be them – for instance, the sleek fur of a seal disturbed on his sandbank and being forced to reluctantly heave into the water for safety, or the lithe and nimble otter effortlessly slipping over a post with his sturdy tail following in line a cheeky, playful expression on his face. Raised on a livestock hill farm in Cornwall, Robin spent much of her childhood on horseback and making friends with animals of other species. Robin understands instinctively where stock would go for shelter when weak or in bad weather when they are at their most vulnerable. This is equally true for wild animals in the bush in Africa. She knows when to leave an unhappy animal in peace, and has had to neatly sidestep a charging rhino. After time at Sherborne School for Girls and studying Agricultural and Forest Sciences at Oxford University Robin commenced a long working partnership with the sculptor David Wynne, who has as many public sculptures in London as any living artist. Together they have spent much time studying wildlife in the bush and hinterlands of Africa, and by contrast, drawing and modelling some of the world’s most famous racehorses such as Shergar and Sharistani for portraits. Robin chooses her medium to suit the subject. The small bronzes are like an artist’s sketch and are quick and easy to model in clay or plastercine, and are also easy to destroy if they don’t work or lack incident. Her larger bronzes will be modelled around an armature of aluminium, made in clay and cast into bronze. This is a medium that can convey complex shapes and has a fluidity and subtlety to it - though knowing what can be successfully cast requires a thorough understanding of the foundry man’s task. Perhaps the medium that distinguishes Robin’s work most are the stone carvings. These are often produced in exotic stones located and collected by her sculpting father on his frequent travels around European marble quarries. To produce a carving requires thought, planning, stubbornness and a vast amount of physical strength and energy, which Robin possesses in abundance. The carvings themselves often start out as blocks weighing several tons. These are transformed into wonderfully simple yet moving forms that convey the real essence of humans and other animals, caught in unusual and iconic positions with great precision. See Robin At Work |
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