And we're back ! calling all sculpture collectors and fans

SAVE THE DATE  31 July - 24 September
The Sculpture Garden at ​Ashridge House
Welcome to the inaugural sculpture exhibition at Ashridge House. Set across 190 acres of our historic grounds, the Sculpture Garden celebrates and illustrates the natural world as well as the unique legacy of the property. The exhibition invites guests to pause and reflect on the gift of life itself: from fruit and fertility to the cruel realities of mankind. Presenting work by contemporary sculptors, the exhibition champions living artists who communicate their unique perspectives through their mediums. With half of the participating artists creating large scale sculpture being women, we address a balance required in our society to look beyond our preconceptions.

Showcasing 15 Sculptors, including some of your favourites; Veda Hallowes MRSS, Jenny Pickford and Helen Sinclair MRSS. Jenny Pickford has had astounding success over the past few years with public commissions. Her largest work on display at Ashridge will be winging its way from Glastonbury Festival. We have some truly wonderful artists for you to learn about and enjoy exploring over the summer months.

We are honoured to be showing and working with Diane Maclean FRSS
As the viewer moves through the garden they encounter Diane Maclean’s latest work; Crown of Leaves, which was made specifically for the Fernery at Ashridge House.
As a heralded environmental artist with a distinguished sculpture career spanning over 5 decades, Maclean is motivated by capturing the elemental and ephemeral in substantial form. Thus, the Fernery is the perfect location to showcase the artist’s work. Diane Maclean has a vast array of thought provoking public works throughout the globe. The Late Queen unveiled her ‘Open Book’ donated by the UK to the city of Paris.

The Fernery, designed by Mathew Digby Wyatt in 1864, was built with the sole dedication of growing ferns. With its many windows that allow light to flood in, the space evokes a sense of natural tranquillity and new life. Crown of Leaves interacts with the light; the metal leaves refracting the sun’s rays and gently swaying in the breeze. Through its composition and playful yet delicate reaction to its environment, the piece reminds the viewer of the fragile majesty of the natural world. 
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Also in the Sculpture Garden, along the 200-metre-long path lined with towering fir trees known as Berkhamsted Avenue, is Diane Maclean’s Lines of Light. The ‘brushed’ steel offers a blurred reflection of its surroundings and the subtle nuances and tones of natural light as the day passes. Maclean’s other featured pieces include Snake in the Grass, Cradle and Pyramids of Light. Each work further explores the artist’s subject in imaginative and contemplative ways, subverting traditional perceptions of sculpture through modern techniques.

Among our new sculptors are GILES PENNY ARBS, known widely for his public sculptures in London and SALLY DE COURCY MRSS, with her prize winning installation on migration.​ We welcome back ED ELLIOTT with his Greer Guardian Angel, the kinetic genius DAVID WATKINSON and lots more for you to discover.

Collectors Private View