Sculptors who use natural materials in their work.

Starting points Many sculptures use different starting points. Sally Matthews says “Everyone has their own reasons for using animals in art, but for me I always go back to the animals themselves for inspiration. My love of them, their different form, movement, smell and nature are the reasons for my making them. Their nature, even of a domesticated or trained animal is unpredictable and wild, their presence is always enlivening. I want my work to remind people of our need for animals and the example their nature provides us with.” Deer hounds made from hay, mud and graphite.

Sally Matthews Sally Matthew is based in Wales. She is a sculptor who often uses natural materials in her work. She says “The materials I use such as coire fibre, cow muck, steel, copper, wood, all have a relevance to the subject I am making. They usually have a texture and colour that means no surface has to be added.” 3 Ponies made from steel. 3 Ponies made from felted sheep wool.

Serena de la Hey Serena de la Hey uses willow in sculptures. Having worked all over the world on a range of projects, she is best known for the Willow Man, a 12 metre sculpture next to the M5 motorway, near Bridgwater in Somerset, UK. Willow man 2001 Metaphors - 1993

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson was one of the founders of the art form known as land art, and is most well known for the Sprial Jetty, 1970, located in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. This monumental earthwork was inspired in part when Smithson saw the Great Serpent Mound, a Pre-Columbian Indian monument in south western Ohio. Land art takes using natural materials to it’s extreme. Materials such as rocks sticks, soil, plants and so on are often used, and the works frequently exist in the open and are left to change and erode under natural conditions. Particularly large works are sometimes known as earthworks. Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005. Photograph by Soren Harward

Henry Moore Henry Moore was born in 1898 in Castleford, Yorkshire. His sculptures were abstract. That means that his sculptures often showed his ideas and feelings, rather than a clear figure or thing. His sculptures were often smooth, included empty hollows and were often carved out of stone or wood. The arch (1969) is made out of bronze. It is outside the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan.

Can you find out about any other sculptors that use natural materials in their work? You could use: The school library to find more information. The internet. Can you think of any other way we could find out about sculptors' that use natural materials to make their sculptures?