Rosie Musgrave carved her first
piece of stone in her early 20s. She was apprenticed variously
with sculptors and then studied figurative sculpture in
clay, wood and stone at Sir John Cass and City & Guilds
Art Schools in London.
With her young family she ran a smallholding in Cornwall
and on moving to Devon worked in complementary health.
Her practice as a somatic therapist together with an early
training as a physiotherapist and her employment at the
Social Care Unit in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields,
Trafalgar Square, have informed her work.
The quality of form, the surface tension between form
and space, light and shadow and the sense of touch and
of relationship are all important to her.
In the last ten years she has returned to full-time
stone carving and lives and works on Dartmoor in Devon.
"Many of my earliest memories are of being amongst
mountains and rocks, of collecting stones in my pockets.
I have always been drawn to the beauty and presence
of this ancient material that has helped to shape
our landscape. Much of the limestone that I carve
was laid down in the Jurassic age, at least 140 million
years ago.
I cut stone mostly by hand with hammers, chisels,
rasps and abrasives, exploring ways to honour its
innate sense of gravity and stillness while still
expressing energy and movement within the carved form.
It is often only when a piece is nearly finished that
its sensuality is revealed: the stone unveils its
secrets with shell forms, veins of colour fossilised
within the substance of time.
I carve stone as an invitation to touch. I believe
that the relevance of touch-stones is increasingly
important in this visual age. Exploring their changing
temperatures, textures, forms and spaces not only
offers new landscapes of discovery but also a sense
of being an infinitesimally small part of a much greater
whole."
SOME RECENT EXHIBITIONS
Coughton Court Gardens Warwickshire
In the grounds of Buckfast Abbey, Devon
The Garden Gallery, Stockbridge, Hampshire
Moncrieff-Bray Gallery, Petworth, Sussex
'On Form 2010' Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
Ludlow Summer Exhibition, Shropshire
Devon Open Studios
St. Wilfrid's Hospice 2009 Open Art Competition Pallant House, Chichester, Sussex
Fresh Air 2009 Quenington, Glos.
2009 Brighton Art Fair
Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth, Devon
Millstream 2007/8 Sculpture Garden, Bishopstrow, Wiltshire
Delamore House Cornwood, Devon – Early Summer Exhibition
The Gallery, Dartington Campus with SouthWest Sculptors
The Brownston Gallery, Modbury, Devon
Royal West of England Academy, Bristol – Open Sculpture Exhibition
Quartz Arts Festival Queen's College, Taunton, Somerset
The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne
Beaford Arts – Art at the Red House, Exeter, Devon
BlindArt Exhibition 2005 Sense and Sensuality at the Royal College of Art, London
Brian Bearne Memorial prize 2002: South West Academy Open Exhibition
RECENT PROJECTS
- 2011: Public Commission & installation of sculpture, Leechwell Garden, Totnes, Devon
- 2008: installation of 'Tsunami Noni' into the gardens of Coughton Court, Warwickshire
- 2007-2008: 'The Three Gunas' triptych: Sharpham House, Ashprington, Devon, a submission for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context.
- 2006-2007: 'Tsunami Noni' on Tour: Cartmel Priory, Hexham Abbey, Exeter, Leicester Lincoln and Canterbury Cathedrals.
- 2006: 'Emergence': Dartington Estate, Devon, as part of 'Arts in Process', Dartington College of Art
Member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors
AWARDS
One of 20 Devon artists selected to promote Visual Arts and Rural Businesses in the region 2007
Devon Artsculture Funding 2007:
South West Academy Summer Open Exhibition Briane Bearne Memorial prize 2002
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'Floating this Boat of Stone': a colloquy on the making of Tsunami Noni, edited by
Philip Kuhn, Itinerant Press 2008
BBC Radio Devon: 'The Review' with Jo Loosemore;
'A conversation between two sculptors' 2008
Articles in the Devon Press; BBC news, BBC Radio Devon; Church Times |
