Fred Gordon is an award winning young British sculptor, passionate about wildlife, conservation and the natural world.
Born in 1993, Fred did a Foundation Diploma at Falmouth and has a MA Hons in History of Art and French from Edinburgh University. Having continued to produce work throughout his degree, on graduating in 2017 he immediately threw himself into creating sculpture full-time.
With minimal formal training, Fred has learnt through combined experience and total commitment. With an acute sense of observation, instinctive approach and striking ability, he captures a real sense of spirit, movement and energy in his work.
Fred has travelled widely to study his subjects first hand in their natural environment, drawing his subjects from the British countryside and experiences further afield, including Sri Lanka and a three month artist residency in Limpopo, South Africa.
Working directly from life, Fred sketches, photographs and where possible creates small maquette studies in front of the animals. Looking at their anatomy and behaviour, he takes this source material back to his studio to work up the pose and form in the final pieces.
Fascinated by the casting process, Fred worked for several years at the foundry casting the bronze first hand. Whilst at the foundry he started experimenting with the foundry casting wax, folding and layering sheets of the wax to create form.
With this layered effect, working quickly with the heated plates of wax, there is a spontaneity and an element of fragmentation, hollowness and abstraction in the work.
Rather than create an exact impression, Fred is looking to capture a moment, a nuance in the movement and an instinctive sense of character in the pose. He then looks for greater intricacy in the details and the faces.
Once the wax master is finished, the bronze is cast using the Lost Wax Method; an age-old technique used to create the mould, cast and finish the piece in bronze, which in Fred’s case involves one shot at casting directly from the wax itself. Closely involved in the casting process and final patination, Fred finishes the pieces with a marbled patina, using natural grey, green and brown tones to create collages of colour.
Fred Gordon has exhibited with Sculpture by the Lakes, the Animal Art Fair, Art for Youth and the Affordable Art Fair in London. He won the Diana Brooks Prize with Art for Youth in 2017 and is rapidly making a name for himself as a brilliantly talented, committed and exciting young British sculptor.
