Ever fancied immortalising your own or someone else’s likeness in bronze – well what about this?
We were invited to be the guest speakers to open the Shards Art Exhibition at the Bournemouth International Centre. It’s the third year of the exhibition, which runs throughout August of each year and invites artists from all over the country to submit work for display. The theme this year was ‘Endangered Species’, hence presumably why we’d been invited – not because we’re endangered but because of our time in India.
The gathered crowd looked a little perplexed when we suggested that the artists themselves and the human race generally are an endangered species but that’s a bit too deep for here.
The creators and curators of Shards are Linda Joyce and Rishi Ludgate and Linda herself is producing stunning work that is finding international acclaim with her Icons & Legends series of sculptures. We’d first met Linda when Cherrie arranged a sculpture course for me at her studio. I’ve created a couple of ‘heads’ under her tutelage but have backed off now as our home was beginning to look like the result of executions at the Tower of London.
Linda recently created and cast a bronze of Amy Winehouse, the international singing star who tragically died far too young. The first sculpture in her limited edition of twelve of Amy sold for £11,000 at auction with the proceeds going to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.
Amy’s family were ecstatic with the bronze and not only unveiled the original work but endorsed the whole series. Since then Linda has produced limited edition bronzes of Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon, with Muhammad Ali, Marilyn Monroe and James Hunt in various stages of production. They’re selling at auction in London and New York.
Getting to the point of this post; Linda not only sculpts the great and the good but also individuals who might wish themselves (or their relatives, or heroes) to be immortalised in fired clay or bronze.
What better way to own a truly unique piece of art that hasn’t been mass produced but produced to your own specification and wishes. She’ll work from photos if the subjects can’t be around or at sittings if they can; she’ll produce sculptures in any size and material and of any subject (human or otherwise) – so the only questions are what do you want and where will you put it?
Cost is very much between you depending on what you wish to end up with and, if it’s of a well-known hero, apparently you can even earn an income from the sale of subsequent sculptures in the limited edition.
If you’re really keen you can also get Linda to teach you how to sculpt – so you could make your own sculptures and learn a new skill.
We feel that Linda opens up a whole world of opportunities for the individual who wants – well – to be individual.
Linda’s star(s) are in the ascendancy; we certainly think her work is stunning – so it must surely increase in value over the coming years and represents a good investment that you can enjoy in the meantime.
Time to get a-head?
You can find much more about Linda’s work and how to contact her on her Icons & Legends website
