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Of Earth and Air 2025
Standen House and Gardens National Trust
W. Hoathly Rd, East Grinstead, RH19 4NE
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Alison graduated from Loughborough University in 2000 with a degree in Fine Art: Sculpture. Since then she has been specialising in metalwork and spends most of her time creating sculptures inspired by nature and wildlife, she is particularly known for her intricate and often comical birds.
Working mainly from her studio in Shere in the beautiful Surrey Hills, Alison uses fairly basic tools to cut, hammer and weld sheet steel to create her sculptures. Often cutting large sheets in to hundreds of tiny pieces, each one individually shaped before welding them together to form the finished shape. Most of the sculptures are then galvanised and painted bright colours to bring them to life and to add a sense of humour and quirkiness that you don’t get with the natural metal finish.
Sculpture:
Often working to commission or running workshops either in schools or from her studio, Alison loves to be challenged and to have the opportunity to push the limits of her work. Whether it’s working with 500 kids to create a permanent wall sculpture of an enormous metal tree complete with a life size tiger, giraffe and other wildlife, or to create a life size velociraptor as a private commission, Alison always approaches the project as a fun learning experience even after working as a professional sculptor for 20 years!
Alison has had several successful solo exhibitions at RHS gardens Wisley and Hyde Hall. For a number of years she created a sculpture trail of butterfly themed work to compliment the annual Butterfly Event at Wisley and has also had summer sculpture trails of her birds and other animals in the gardens. She also exhibits widely with the Surrey Sculpture Society and has acted as exhibition manager for several of their shows.
“I enjoy what I do, I want that to be evident in the finished work and I hope that the work brings a bit of happiness to the people that look at it. I love nothing more than when someone looks at one of my sculptures and smiles” Alison Catchlove 😊
Lampwork Glass:
After visiting Murano while on honeymoon Alison became obsessed with glassblowing but quickly realised you can't really do glass on a large scale as a hobby. She eventually found "lampwork glass" (working with molten glass but on a small scale) as an alternative. In 2012 she did a 2 hour class to learn the basics then set herself up in the garden shed and spent the next 8 years honing her skills! During covid when all of the sculpture shows were cancelled she turned her glass hobby (addiction) in to a business and now sells glass jewellery and teaches basic lampwork alongside her main sculpture business.
Follow Alison on Instagram or Facebook to see what she gets up to in the studio day to day!