Bridget McCrum, “Mars”, Date Unknown, Charcoal, Acrylic and Gesso on Canvas, 102 x 150 cm
Bridget McCrum is an English artist known for her stone carvings. She studied at Farnham College of Art, training as a painter with Lesjek Musjynski, in the 1950s. She came to sculpture in her forties and from 1980 began to work primarily in stone, having learned her craft from John Joeku and Andrea Schulewitz on the South Downs.
“Since childhood I have been excited by ancient remains, fragments of carving and standing stones in lonely landscapes. My travels have taken me to many sites from different cultures around the Mediterranean, and the chance to work on archaeological surveys in Somalia during the early eighties increased my interest in small objects from the past.
The landscape around my two homes has inevitably worked itself into my head. The gentle curves of the hills of South Devon and the stark limestone cliffs carved by wind and sea on Gozo, have all subconsciously influenced my carving. I look down on birds circling and gliding above their prey from my home high above the Dart estuary. They make marvellously abstracted subjects and I have carved them ever since I have been here. Some have been cast into bronze which I patinate myself.” – Bridget McCrum