Clare Trenchard

LIVES:
West Dorset

EDUCATION:
Clare studied at the Chelsea School of Art and graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 1978.

MEDIUMS USED IN WORK:
Her work is modelled from life in clay, plaster or wax and cast in bronze and bronze resin.

SUBJECTS OF WORK:
Tabletop and life-size pacing sculptures of wild and domestic animals and dancing part-human combinations

EXHIBITIONS:
She has exhibited at the ICA in London and for The Society of Portrait Sculptors. Her work is exhibited widely across the West Country of England.

CAREER: She is an instinctive questioner of all things artistic and more, and is open to learning from the work of artists she admires. Frink, Picasso and the Italian sculptor Marino Marini seem to flow through her veins, deepening her practice, extending her range. Paying close attention to life around her by carrying a sketch book and drawing people asleep on trains, on holiday, in hospital, she also makes large dynamic drawings of animals in charcoal and wash, often the origin of a sculpture.

The animals are observed from life then drawn fast, with an economy and spontaneity that pull us with her into a kind of visceral understanding – how it feels to be inside that strange body. Energy, movement and strength are captured with bold and fluid lines and these creatures embody Clare’s own freedom of spirit and intelligence.

Whether life-size or table-top, the sculptures are modelled in clay, plaster or wax and then cast in bronze or bronze resin. She has a strong ability to depict the essence of each animal, to be able to express what she calls ‘an awareness of their splendidness’. This work is more than just representational; it brims with energy and movement and is imbued with spirit and personality.

Trenchard has observed wolves in the wild and, for us, encountering with the resultant life-size bronzes brings us face to face with something so joltingly recognisable that it provokes an instinctive physical reaction. Her pacing pack of life-size wolves is extraordinarily impressive for they epitomise the creatures’ essence and tap into some kind of mythic life force, powerful, sexy and dangerous.