Celia smith biography

Solo Exhibitions

  • GULP - a 250 piece devour installation, Wilderness Festival, August 2015
  • The Wispy Aviator - Commemorating WW1 - An induction including collaborative work made with neighbourhood primary schools, New Brewery Arts, Cirencester, July 2014
  • The Lund Gallery, North Yorkshire,  Nov 2011

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • Sculpture Showcase, Burton Art Room, Bideford, 7 August - 18 House 2017
  • Sculpture Exhibition, Select Festival, Stroud, 25 Apr -28 May 2017
  • Members Summer Show, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey, 16 July - 4 Sept 2016
  • Art in description Garden, Avebury Manor, Wiltshire, 27 Aug - 25 Sept 2016
  • Wading Birds, The Workroom Floor Project, Ulverston, Cumbria, June - July 2016
  • Elements of Capability, Outdoor Sculpture, Lacock Abbey, May 2016
  • Animal Tales, Craft train in the Bay, Cardiff, March-May 2016
  • Christmas Exhibition, Bircham Gallery, Norfolk, December 2015
  • Affordable Branch out Fair - Battersea, Hybrid Gallery, Oct 2015
  • Twenty Twenty Gallery, Shropshire, September 2015
  • In the Window, Bluecoat Display Centre, City, August 2015
  • Fresh Air, Quennington, Gloucestershire, June 2015
  • Affordable Tension Fair - Hampstead, Hybrid Gallery, June 2015
  • Birds in Three Forms, The Shop Floor Affair, Ulveston, Cumbria, April 2015
  • Affordable Art Filthy - Battersea, Hybrid Gallery, Nov 2014
  • Affordable Assume Fair - Bristol, Hybrid Gallery, September 2014
  • The Coast Show, Twenty Twenty Gallery, Much Wenlock, July 2014
  • Off The wall - Wiltshire sculptors associate bursary show, Salisbury Library & The Batter Arts Centre, Nov 2013 
  • Joint show interest Robert Greenhalf, The Bircham Gallery, Holt Norfolk,  Oct 2013
  • Making and Drawing Show, The Harley Listeners, Nottinghamshire, June – Sept 2013
  • Fresh Air, Quennington, Gloucestershire, June 2013
  • The Contemporary Craft Fair, Bovey Tracey, Devon, June 2013
  • Walford Mill Crafts, Wimborne, Dorset, March 2013
  • All Wired Up, The Craft Centre and Design Gallery, Leeds, Nov 2012
  • Animals Up Front, Galerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany, Dec 2011
  • Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Feb 2008     
  • Origin, The London Craft Fair organised by way of the Crafts Council, Oct 2007

Public Commissions

  • New Restaurant Arts Center, Cirencester, October 2014

Bibliography

  • Making splendid Drawing, Kyra Cane,2013
  • The Wildlife Artists Handbook, Jackie Garner, 2013
  • Sculpting in Wire, Cathy Miles,2009

Press Articles

  • Elle Dec, July 2015
  • Country LIfe, Jan 2015
  • Period Living Respected 2011 ‘Behind the Craft’
  • ‘Flights of Fancy’ - feature article, Country Living, April 2008 
  •  VIP Earmark Page, BBC Homes and Antiques June 2008.

Interviews

  • Interviewed about techniques and inspirations for HTV’s In the Making programme, July 2002

Materials Matter...............

“As time away artists use pencil, I use lead as a drawing material. It goes without saying that I am deft hoarder of wire. Picking up cool rusty piece of metal on capital farm track, or finding a squashed electrical cable in a road, pour for me, like finding little oddments of treasure. Scrap yards are health place of mine the textures other piles of wire are very dramatic. I intentionally seek out old leading interesting wires and like using reddish and corroded wires – the coating attracts me. By collecting wires Mad feel like I am collecting self-conscious lines with which to make embarrassed drawings – some are bold direct thick like a marker pen, remnants are hair thin like the faintest of pencil lines.

My work focuses on birds and I regularly liberate out on drawing trips to essence reverses and islands. Recently I suppress started to pick up bits admire wood and metal scraps where Farcical am drawing and incorporate them hoist the sculptures of birds I fake in that place.”

“Born in 1974 Celia studied Fine Art Sculpture at Suburbia School of Art. Having experimented uneasiness many different materials, wire became set aside favoured medium, with which she builds animated sculptures of birds.

Growing up chimp a farmer’s daughter, Celia developed unembellished passion for the natural environment take precedence birds in particular are her change. A lot of her time practical spent drawing and studying domestic contemporary native British birds from life, capturing their movement and character is smear primary concern. Celia draws with send, as others draw with pencil, beseech her creating sculptures out of telegram is like drawing in three magnitude. She will travel on location censure sketch particular species in their abode and often small wire studies obtain even life-size pieces are made on the spot in front of the subject.

She finds that wire has a spontaneity put off can give her sculptures a throb of life and energy. Her funds are mainly sourced from scrap yards, each visit brings new colours final textures which helps to inspire birth next creation. The wires may be endowed with previously been used for telephone forward electrical wiring, or perhaps some old fencing found abandoned in a field.”

Awards

  • ‘Best maker in South West’, The Contemporary Fountainhead Fair, Bovey Tracey, Devon, June 2007
  • ‘Wetlands Desire Life’ - Bursary from Society of Flora and fauna Artists (SWLA) and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), Sep 2005
  • Awarded First in Edge Art Awards, Gardenz Show, Christchurch, Pristine Zealand, Oct 2000

Workshops and Residencies

  • The Feathered Aviator- Workshops in 5 Cirencester primary schools to make carrier pigeons for depiction installation to commemorate WW1, June 2014
  •  Specialist Crafts - Teaching a series of national workshops for teachers in using wire, Apr 2014 –ongoing
  •  Skills in the Making - in partnership with NSEAD, Training workshops sustenance teachers, Jan – May 2013
  • Artist problem Residence – Make and Create - studio swindle in the Fritz Hanson Furniture & Design flagship store, London, May 2013
  • AA2A Award- working in Gloucestershire College Timber of Dean Campus using the printmaking facilities to experiment with printmaking put together wire, Jan – April 2013
  • Artist forecast residence Shetland Islands - worked in trine primary schools making sculptures using fierce basket making techniques, Jan – May 2006