Sculptor
| Why do I make art? It is a driven and compulsive necessity. It is who I am. The excitement of discovery. It makes me happy. |
What is my work about? A deep connection to my environment Pembrokeshire and tribal roots. In search of serenity. Love of stone and natural rock. Exploring colour and texture. Emotions. |
Methods and influences
Twenty years ago, I was a carver of stone. Now due to creeping arthritis, I have embraced colour and texture, with a wealth of new materials. The constructions happened because I can work sitting down. Where I made large carvings, now I make small ones for bronzes. I choose difficult stone like Bluestone and beach pebbles which require using grinders and diamond burrs. The hardness of the material prevents detail and encourages the purity of line and form. They are millions of years old and have absorbed the energy and been carved by the sea. I like to use them to express the feeling of time, shape, texture from something that nature has made beautiful. The cut shapes and sculpture are ordained by the overall shape of the stone. I also cut and incise universal patterns and symbols.
Bronzes- These are individually cast from original stone carvings. They are sent to a foundry and then returned in a rough state. I grind and fettle them and then patinate with the alchemy of fire and chemicals. Everyone is different.
My dyslexia has been a huge advantage and not a learning disability. I see and perceive things differently which leads to natural abstraction both in my drawings and carvings.
Website: https://www.perryn-butler.co.uk/
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11am - 5pm
Open at other times of the year by appointment only.
Perryn Butler was born in Malta 1953. She grew up in Pembrokeshire with artist mother Bim and her stepfather Arthur Giardelli, surrounded by a wonderful collection of contemporary art which she absorbed by osmosis.
She attended Carmarthen College Of Art from 1983-87 studying sculpture and design, and has been self-employed as a sculptor and community artist in Wales for the past 40 years.
Education
- 2000: Cert. of Education
- 1987: H.N.D Craft Design and Sculpture at Carmarthen College of Technology and Art
- 1985: O.N.D Sculpture and Restoration at Carmarthen College of Art
- 1972: Business Studies Diploma at Neyland Technical College
Employment
- 2010-2012: Musical Director of Cauldrons and Furnaces - an Olympiad Project
- 1998-2008: Arts Care at St Davids Hospital, Carmarthen; Freelance teaching in mental health at psychiatric wards; and assisting the Crown Prosecution Service
- 1996-1998: Teaching sculpture and leading one-to-one therapy sessions with acutely mentally ill patients at Brookwood Mental Hospital and Farnham Road Hospital
Perryn’s sculpture has been exhibited, collected, and bought worldwide from Eu8rope to Australia, Asia, and The Americas. They grace public places sauch as the Environment Agency in Ireland, The National Museum of Wales, and the Centre for European Culture in Germany.
My influences have always been primitive art and the derivations of it practiced by early twentieth century direct carvers like Lipschitz, Brancusi and Moore. I studied primitive art from all over the world in search of the essence of the serenity that imbues the carvings. Art from the Innuit, South America, Africa and the Celtic are so knitted into my psyche that I don't think about it anymore. I rely enormously upon my subconscious and dive straight into the stone and trust it to take me somewhere.
I realized the need to understand the material and allow it to tell me what to do. Some call it flow, when your hands and mind take over from over thinking and planning. It is like seeing dragons in clouds and witches in trees, an intuitive process.
This works in the same way with constructions. I make thousands of components, shapes and textures out of natural materials. I have drawers and boxes full of cut slate, wood, leather, heated metals and interesting objects trouve’. I use them to tell a story. Each section must sing on its own and with its neighbors. I offer up pieces, until it feels right. As a child my mother Bim Giardelli took us to beaches where we made mermaids and selkies out of seaweed and stones and made up stories about them. Rather than toys we made things,
Pembrokeshire is hugely important and influences me; whether it is the air, the rock beneath my feet it vibrates like no other place on earth.