My Favourite sources of inspiration are museums and ethnographic collections in the UK and around the world. Objects from distant cultures and centuries fill my sketchbooks and become an invaluable reservoir of forms.
Back in my studio, I feel my way towards a new sculpture by drawing and redrawing an idea until the form feels 'right', then I'll try it out in the round by carving hand held blocks of hardened clay.
I carve the sculpture I'm going to cast in bronze from a block of solid plaster and extend and alter it by adding wire armature and fabric soaked in wet plaster, It's a method that suits the way I work : I'm a carver not a modeller, I like the way hard plaster responds to carving, honing, scraping and polishing.
The sculpture is cast at the foundry and the bronze surface is patinated to give it a subtle colour and feel whilst preserving the marks and textures of the making process.
Emma Maiden. December 2020
Training
2003 – 2004
City & Guilds Stonemasonry
City of Bath College
1995 – 1996
MA Ceramics
The University of Wales, Cardiff
1993 – 1995
Diploma in Fine & Applied Art
City Lit, London
Exhibitions
2020 – Moncrieff-Bray Gallery – West Sussex
2020 – Josie Eastwood Fine Art – Hampshire
2020 – On Form 20 – Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2020 – Summer Exhibition – Nadia Waterfield Fine Art, Hampshire
2018 – Ten Artists – Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford
2017 – Emma Maiden: Sculpture – Fine Art Society, London
2016 – On Form 16 – Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2014 – On Form 14 – Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2009 – Summer Exhibition – Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwicks
2008 – On Form 08 – Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2007 – Autumn Exhibition – Royal West of England Academy Bristol
2006 – On Form 06 – Astrall Manor, Oxfordshire
2006 – Autumn Exhibition – Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2005 – Emma Maiden – Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour
2001 – The Sculpture Show – Bruton Street Gallery, London
1999 – Humans Being – New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
1999 – About the Figure – Six Chapel Row, Bath
1998 – Emma Maiden: Touchstone – Happening Gallery, Bristol
1997 – Past Masters – Hotbath Gallery, Bath