Clifford Vince

I am ex-professional automotive design engineer – I have designed numerous automotive vehicles and structures in 3D with Computer Aided Design (CAD) system that was part of my day job. But this has never been enough to satisfy my creative streak. In the past I attended a number of workshops per year to experiment with different Art mediums working with different artists, Sculptors. I had done painting and photography before taking a course on sculpting in stone with Jude Tucker; I quickly found that sculpture naturally complemented my professional work and reminded me of my earlier years when I trained as a Coppersmith when I stated life as a Tool Maker Apprentice. I do like to challenge myself with some of my creations and one of my first pieces was the memorial headstone that I created for my Mum (pictures can be seen on Instagram #cliffvincesculpures).  But sculpting whether in stone or wood, presents me with some wonderful challenges to create all various forms that my mind conjures up. My pieces vary from more literal interpretations of the natural world such as birds and horse, to historically inspired creations like my ‘ancient’ helmet and Ancient Egypt-inspired pieces, and then my abstract sculptures where I work with the geological features within the stone itself to bring out the best in the material. There’s a great community around stonemasons and stone sculpting with the stone carving festivals.  I’ve attended a number of these, mainly to increase my education, seeing and working with some incredible artists and masons allowed me to gain more confidence and speed to enable me to do my creations faster.