Bangkok--6 Sep--Anantara Si Kao
From a massive 1.5 tonne bronze bull in the Welsh countryside to moulding the busts of senior British aristocracy, Arabic royalty and a world famous entertainer (although he’s sworn to secrecy as to who it is) it’s been a long winding artistic road for London born artist, Gavin Fifield to becoming one of the foremost sort after contemporary sculptors worldwide.
Gavin’s talents stem back as far as he can remember, “I did my first sculpture when I was seven years old and I loved the process of changing an inert lump of clay or wax into a piece of art. I continued to do it on and off throughout my childhood but wanted to see the world so I decided to follow the family tradition and dropped sculpting and joined the British Army.
After almost a decade in the army Gavin’s career took another unexpected twist and he somehow ended up owning and managing a nursing home for the elderly. He eventually restarted his artistic journey by setting up a small studio in the Cotswold’s making miniature houses which gradually turned into making sculpture for fine art publishing houses to sell in their galleries worldwide.
As recognition of Gavin’s work grew so did his travelling time and after realizing he was spending over 250 hours sitting on a plane every year he made the decision to leave the UK and base himself in Bangkok permanently.
“In my job I am privileged to work with many well known and famous artists, helping them create sculptures from their paintings. I then take their work on through to the moulding and mastering stages from which limited edition sculptures are then made in bronze, stainless steel, aluminum and bonded stone. This still keeps me busy travelling in studios and factories in UK, USA, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan and China.
“Although the travelling from different countries is still there being based in Bangkok gives me more time to thoroughly enjoy the diversity of work that I am commissioned to do, from monumental work to life sized bronzes and highly detailed model making. The other advantage of being here is that I have a little bit of spare time to pass on my knowledge and talent to students in Thailand.
“I enjoy helping other artists develop their skills in sculpture and turning their ideas from 2D to 3D. This is both challenging and immensely rewarding, and I really enjoy showing people that they really can make sculpture.
“My students have ranged from 6 — 97 years old which shows that everyone can become a sculptor. Everyone can learn to create, but each student is different and needs different encouragement and direction. I believe that a good grounding in the traditional principals of Structure, Form Articulation and Anatomy is a sound base for sculptural expression, no matter what its style or form.
And it’s not only the students that Gavin is passing his talents onto, “My three year old son is already showing a great deal of interest in learning how to make things in wax — snakes being his current favourite, but he will progress, no doubt! I hope he can take over from me one day and keep me in relative luxury whilst I help him by hiding his tools and leaving finger marks on his work, much the same way he likes to help me.
“The key skills to becoming a great sculptor are observation and perseverance, and the passion and imagination to be able to transform what you see into your work. A great deal of skill comes from practice, although real talent comes from the heart, Mr. Fifield concluded.
Gavin will be holding an exclusive six week course every Thursday at Attic Studio in Sukhumvit 31 starting from September 16th from 10am — 1pm. For more information call Elsie Evans on 083 301 1314. And you never know he may just reveal who the world wide famous person is.