Spotlight on Bempton Cliffs
A spotlight on Bempton Cliffs and the inspiration it provides for my sculptures.
To celebrate another road trip to Bempton Cliffs, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of my sculptures and how they’ve been inspired by my visits to the cliffs.
If you’ve never been to Bempton Cliffs, it’s a nature reserve on the East coast of the UK.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of seabirds make it their breeding site between March and August.
The path which you can walk along brings you eye-level with them and the noise is astonishing.
The whole experience never ceases to fill me with awe and feel lucky to be alive.
Nestled in the smallest of spaces on the sheer chalk cliffs overlooking the North Sea are;
If you can tear yourself away from looking out to sea, turn around and there’s plenty of other beautiful birds to admire from Skylarks and Kestrels to Barn Owls and Short Eared Owls.
Flippy Flappy – My first Bronze Puffin Sculpture
I was 40 before I saw my first Puffin, and I count myself lucky as many people have yet to see one.
I was completely taken aback by just how small they are. Their bright orange feet gave them a comical walk I like to refer to as, “flippy flappy.” Which, is the name of my first sculpture I’d like to mention.
Inspired by my first ever sighting, I decided to sculpt a Puffin complete with wings outstretched.
I was smoothing his cheeks and he was looking at me when I realised I just couldn’t part with him.
He was the first sculpture I even considered having cast in bronze. A material that always seemed too “out of reach.” I felt it was reserved for only museum masterpieces by world-famous artists.
But deciding life’s too short, I made some enquiries and a few months later I had a heavy metal Puffin!
