logo
  • Home
  • Sculptors
  • News
  • Articles
  • Enquiries
    • Privacy Policy
  • Members Only
    • Diary
    • Contact Info
    • Download Guide

Jenny Distin – Biography

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Jenny Distin Posted in Uncategorized

Biography  |  View Gallery  |  Exhibitions  |  Contact


I grew up in a rural village in the Midlands and initially trained as a teacher graduating from Warwick University with a B.Ed degree.  I taught fine art in Nottingham before moving to Devon where I joined a woodcarving group  in the 1980’s and soon found a natural affinity for working with wood.  My early training continued at Dartington Hall with Willi Soukop RA., former master of sculpture at the Royal Academy, whose charismatic tutorship and generous system of mentoring guided my development over the next few years and still remains the touchstone of my work.

In 1990 I became a self-employed woodcarver selling mainly from my own waterfront workshop in Salcombe.  More recently I have moved to Ashburton and now work from home exhibiting at a number of local venues.

As a sculptor I prefer to work in wood as it has a life and personality of its own. I approach the wood with an open mind, never planning in advance but carving whatever the wood wants to be, working almost entirely without sketches or models and using the natural shape and grain of the wood as my inspiration.  Each sculpture is so unique to that particular piece of wood that I know it can never be replicated – even by me.  Every carving is a new adventure and I am often surprised myself at what ‘crawls out of the woodwork’!

More recently I have started working in sheet aluminium and copper for garden sculptures based on botanical forms.  Again these are hand-cut and free-formed with the same ‘one off’ characteristics as my wood sculpture.  I particularly like the way the two materials develop a patina over time and settle into a garden with age.

Sorry  –  no commissions.

« Jenny Distin – Gallery
Jenny Distin – Exhibitions »

Free Newsletter

Sculptors

Nicola Axe
Hilary Bradt
Ani Buckland
Derek Cadle
Daniel Cordell
Isabel Coulton
Tati Dennehy
Jenny Distin
Rose Ellis
Melanie Guy
Angela Holmes
Penny Ireland
Bev Knowlden
Spencer Larcombe
Hetty Ann Laycock
Jean Lock
Maria Moorhouse
Anne Marie Moss
David Newman
Verity Newman
Jan O’Highway
Helen Ridehalgh
Nicola Rigby
Luke Shepherd
Zoe Singleton
Martin Staniforth
Edward Thomas
Pippa Unwin
Miguel Valentini
Sharon Windebank
members login
© South-West Sculptors Association 2019