Ashley Grant: Sculpting in Stone

SummaryAshley Grant was introduced to copper and brass work by his art teacher at New Plymouth’s Devon Intermediate School in 1965, and since then has progressed to sculpting silver, bone and stone. Main Body

In the last 14 years, he has sculpted in Hinuera stone and has taken part in the Te Puna Quarry Park and Matamata stone symposiums.
Ashley was born in New Plymouth and now lives with his family in Pahoia.
This rural property is the geographic wellspring of his creativity and where he creates his wonderful works in stone.
In a recent development he is now using local argylite stone from the Coromandel for his sculptures (stone used historically to make the axe and adze), with interventions of silver, copper, bronze and bone.

Ashley at a Sculptors' symposium in Matamata.

Coming from an architectural background he has always been interested in the history and the art from the different cultures of the past.
He worked with a small architectural practice in Bath, UK, where he was involved with conservation work.
The most memorable project was the creation of a crypt under Bath Abbey where he worked in partnership with archaeologists, who dug up and documented ancient human remains in stone coffins and parts of Roman buildings.
He was also introduced to the beautiful carving quality of Bath's limestone, but overall the experience in the UK, “reinforced within me a deep-seated sense of history”.

Ashley believes that the meaning of a piece of artwork can simply lie in what the viewer experiences-there need be no hidden meaning and great philosophising or theoretical back ground.

"I choose ancient elements, motifs, patterns, and objects that fascinate me and these often go on to make up their own unique story.”
"I attempt to provide the framework for that in my work,” he says.

'Was This the Beginning"by Ashley Grant.

Ashley tells me the greatest compliment he has ever been paid was when a young woman shed tears over a piece of his work.
The piece was not for sale as it held special significance for him, but she shared what the piece meant to her and her life experience.
He was humbled to have provided her with a creative reference that she related to so closely.
Ashley exhibited in a group exhibition at the Creative Tauranga Community Gallery in 2010.
During the Garden and Art Festival in November Ashley and a dozen fellow sculptors including Rex O'Brien and Nic Clegg will be working and displaying work at a symposium on Tauranga's Strand. Be sure to pop down to see and talk with the Bays' best exponents of this art form.
You soon be able to see Ashley's work at the new Lightwave Gallery in Mt Maunganui when it opens in October.
He can be contacted at jagrant@xtra.co..nz for viewings and commission work.
by Pete Morris (2012).

Pete Morris is an occasional painter and an art lover. He is a freelance writer with a particular interest in promoting the visual arts in Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty.

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