First things first, as promised.
Race-goers at Goodwood will find it hard not to notice the inspiring monumental equestrian sculpture in bronze that forms the centrepiece of Glorious Goodwood.
Sculptor, Nic Fiddian-Green, best known for the "Horse at Water" currentyl at Marble Arch, has created the work especially for this season"s major flat race meeting.
From his workshop near Godalming in rural Surrey, Fiddian-Green creates his epic works of art from clay. He oversees the casting into bronze using the ancient "lost wax" technique, a process that has facinated him through his carer. The alchemy of molten bronze pouring into his moulds at 1200
oc has been a process that he needs to be a part of in the creation of his work. He always patinas (colours) his work himself, a process that other sculptors never do; his work is noticeably unique in its final finish as a result.
Fiddian-Green has been working on a large scale for some time now, but has not always focussed on colossal sculpture. His many global exhibitions have taken him from London to New York, Paris, Dublin, Dubai, Melbourne and Sydney where Russell Crowe first saw and started collecting his work. His high profile fans are too numerous to mention and include Tom Cruise and Sir Anthony and Lady Bamford, the latter of whom will install one of Fiddian-Green"s sculptures imminently at their Daylseford estate in Gloucestershire.
Speaking about his work, Fiddian-Green comments, "My primary aim is to place beautiful works of art in landscape and I can thing of nowhere more powerful for my Greek horses head - Artemis than on the ancient site of the trundle at Goodwood overlooking the steeple of CHichester Cathedral to the sea and across to the Isle of Wight..."