The Association of Sculptors of Victoria is an inclusive, not-for-profit collective of contemporary artists whose purpose is to inspire,stimulate and advance the appreciation, creation, and exploration of three-dimensional art in society.

From our February Meeting


The February Meeting was held on Wednesday 13th at the Baptist Hall in Ashburton. It was well attended with one visitor Jennifer Jeffrey and a new member Glenys McKenna, a limestone sculptor student of Jenny Whiteside. 

The group was promised a slide show of sculpture by Patrick and Bronwyn Culshaw, on their trip last year to England, Scotland and to Paris, which was enthusiastically received and well presented with informative and interesting commentary by both.

Most of the presentation revolved around the extensive sculpture park in the grounds of Burghley House a Downton style mansion of 125 rooms the ancestral home of the Cecil family, site of their famous Horse Trials.




from the Burgher of Calais

Patrick explained each of the 20 or so works he had photographed, which varied between traditional marble sculptures to plastic bags wound into a sculptural form, and to a variety of organic forms such as shells, apples and seeds carved in stone to human and animal forms including cows and birds. Each work was placed to best advantage making use of the vast space available in the Park. Patrick also showed a section of 20 or so photographs of Public sculpture, which took his eye, on their travels, with a mix of traditional and some modern and abstract works. 10 photographs were taken of some beautiful carvings in the Scottish Portrait Gallery in particular the carving of Sir Walter Scott and a sensitive portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson (left out of the presentation although it was in the notes).

Last part of the presentation revolved around the Rodin Museum in Paris at the Hotel Biron where Rodin lived and had set up his own studio, with a good coverage of the master’s art. These include The Age of Bronze, the controversial Walking Man, Balzac, The Gates of Hell the Thinker and The Three Shades. Patrick took some time to explain the circumstances of the Burgers of Calais by Rodin, who were prepared to sacrifice themselves to save their town but were given a last minute reprieve, with their faces expressing their dramatic and heroic feelings. Also featured were the works of Ivan Mestrovic considered possibly the greatest sculptor of religious subjects since the Renaissance? He was the first living person to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.


Report by Gordon Robertson


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