Artist of the month:

Adam Booth

Statement:

'Blacksmithing is an addictive experience since I took the decision to become one in 1986.  The fascination with this ability to shape steel is still, after almost 20 years, immeasurable.

I started in the forge in 1987 to produce high quality contemporary ironwork for domestic and architectural purposes.

The following images shows a selection of previous commissions:

Gates should welcome people rather than act as barriers.  Gates should be tactile and enjoyable.  They should foster a feeling of excitement as you stand on the threshold.

To open and close is the fundamental function of a gate, but they must do so perfectly and interestingly. Gates do not have to be an oblong with infill.  They can break free of the space that contains then and enhance the area where they are positioned.

My aim is to create functional sculpture.   When designing a piece of work I like to use the site as the design source (in the picture above in Antigua, I used a local cactus as inspiration).

                              
Here the central section is textured and highlights the water that is channeled past it.  

                     
A shoal of fish combined to             Wheat gate heads swaying in the wind
create a gate. 

In this last example, the interwining sections do not touch and these tall, seemingly solid sections are designed to quiver in the wind.