Lucy Hainsworth

I make both two and three dimensional work, using a wide range of techniques to express my feelings and convictions as emphatically as possible.

One of my main interests is in the human figure, and more particularly in the figure in movement and extremes of posture. In pursuit of this I have worked from dancers, gymnasts, circus acrobats and athletes. I make my current sculptures from traditional materials like stone and wood, but also makes casts in resin and glass and small statuettes in bronze. Since becoming a member of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group, I have been encouraged to work at a larger scale for exterior sites, and tackle tactile sculpture and pieces for large interior spaces such as churches.

My birthplace was Johannesburg, South Africa and although I left there when I was in my late teens and have lived ever since in England, most of the time in Yorkshire, I feel that this has coloured my vision of England and informed my directions during my working life.

Although trained as a sculptor and exhibiting regularly with the Yorkshire Sculptors’ Group, I am very happy working as draughtsman, watercolourist and printmaker, and have had my printmaking career hugely facilitated by the accessibility of the West Yorkshire Print Workshop at the Eastthorpe Gallery in Mirfield, and the help and encouragement I have received there.

My initial discipline naturally involved a wide-ranging investigation of the human figure. However, the use of watercolour led me towards landscape. I have always been inspired by Turner and Monet and their fascination with light and atmosphere. The sculptural interest in form and mass reasserted itself in turning my attention to the urban and industrial landscape.

I have focussed in the past few years on the industrial landscapes of the North; the open-cast mines, chemical works, refineries and steelworks. Here my feelings have been conditioned by disquiet about the effects of industry on the environment; the prints have been in part political protest at the despoiling of the countryside. But they also reveal a fascination with industrial imagery and the awesome power of modern engineering.

email: lucymhainsworth