Helen Lopez-biggin

As a child, I always found great joy in creating animals in 3D using natural objects found in the garden or by the sea. I would varnish pieces of wood and pebbles, fascinated by their natural grain and brilliant colours. It was at the age of nine, after digging down two feet in my parents’ garden one day that I discovered the freedom of clay. This led to a qualification in sculpting at school and soon after, completion of a portrait-sculpting course at a local Fine Art Bronze Foundry.

I enjoyed the course so much that I convinced the owners to take me on and train me as a technician at their foundry in Leicestershire and later in Cambridgeshire. It was during this time that I learnt the various highly skilled techniques needed to take a sculpture from its original clay medium through to a finished polished bronze. I worked on sculptures by many prominent artists, such as Ralph Brown, Malcolm Woodward, Helaine Blumenfeld, Geraldine Knight and Neale Andrew.

During a year spent in Japan, a small portrait head in plaster made headlines and I became the first foreign sculptor to have work exhibited at the Fukui Open Sculpture Exhibition in forty one years. Having picked up Japanese, my life took a different direction as I went on to complete a BA in Japanese Studies at the University of Sheffield. After teaching Japanese, Spanish and English in the state and private sector for many years, I returned to my love of sculpture.

Inspired by artists such as Rodin, Camille Claudel and Ralph Brown, I give my own naturalistic style to my portrait heads, busts and torsos, striving to portray the spirit of the subject through the subtle hint of muscle tone and personal characteristics. My work varies in size from half-life size to life size. I take great care to create minute detail to get my preferred final surface texture and particular bronze patina to complete the presence of my finished work. I now produce bronze and ceramic sculptures from my studio in Northamptonshire.