Taking shape

POETRY IN STONE

The pure lines of Dominic Welch’s stone sculptures settle serenely into nature and have garnered international recognition

Celebrating the strength and serenity of stone, Dominic Welch composes poetic sculptures that feel strikingly contemporary yet agelessly at home in natural settings. He sculpts almost exclusively in creamy-coloured Carrara marble and blue-grey Kilkenny limestone: yin and yang in terms of hue but sharing the quality of barely discernible grain. “Both have so much beauty in them with their subtle marbling. I don’t like stones that are too noisy,” he says.

Working solo in his Devon workshop, Welch extracts forms from blocks of stone with hammers, chisels and air tools as well as stone grinders. The final polishing is always done by hand, although, even at this point, he might put small marks in with a chisel. He can have as many as 10 pieces of work on the go at a time; some made to commission, some for sale through exhibitions.

“It is hard to put a time frame on creating a piece. During the first three solid working days, a piece can come on enormously from a rough block of stone, but then it all slows down,” Welch explains. “Working on the larger pieces is very physical, particularly standing them up to have a look and then laying them down again to work.”

Occasionally, he works for up to three years on a piece, until he feels the subtleties of line and light are just right. “Natural stone lasts forever and weathers almost imperceptibly, although it ages more quickly if located in a damper, shadier part of a garden or if regularly perched on by birds,” he explains. “However, gentle regular cleaning with water is all that’s required, although many like to allow pieces to grow into their landscape, becoming more organic – like living sculptures – which can be amazing.”

LIGHT & SHADE