Sally Wakelin – Studies in Creativity
Paintings, drawings, sculpture and writing
Looking through old family photo albums recently, I found images my Dad had made sometime in the early 1960s. I don’t recall having seen them before though I must have done at some time. Just two months ago I happened to be there, on Bangor Pier and took some very similar photos. I found that rather heart-warming, not the usual tourist choice, we must share some sensibilities and an interest in form. We must have both loved these detailed patterns made by the series of cast benches.
The Olympic Equestrian events were held in Greenwich Park, as will be the Paralympic Equestrian events in early September. A complex bridge structure has been built to allow pedestrians to safely cross the busy A2 road as they arrive at Blackheath station and make their way across the heath to the park.
The sheer number of elements makes for such interesting graphic images. As yet I am not allowed to climb the structure but hope to access the top platform next week.
A favourite building with its Art Deco curving front, large windows and particularly the white on white of the faience lettering, more details from RCAHMW.
This space is available for rent – just imagining it as a dance venue or artist’s studio, huge windows on two adjoining sides.
Somehow I seem to have found myself moving almost full circle in my use of scale. I began with intricate delicate jewellery in silver and moved abruptly in a dramatic change of scale to a few bulky fabrications in painted MDF, then mild steel sculpture as big as I could make it. I yearned to go bigger, larger than life but for that you need money, strength, a whole workshop full of specialist equipment, space and hopefully a commission. After a liberating but all too brief dalliance with pleated paper and an even briefer sojourn with copper sheet, I adopted a more restrained approach, all white sculpture on a domestic scale in a medium quite new to me until now, cast plaster. Gradually and almost without realising what was afoot, the scale has slid back down, close to jewellery sized pieces.
Throughout this whole exploration of materials and processes, runs my habitual theme of repetition, it seems to be the one constant, indeed it is undeniably quite my favourite. And of course my second favourite, the aspect that sits so well with repetition – cast shadows.
Sally Wakelin - Studies in Creativity 
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