Artworks by Rowena Beaty
Artist and sculptor Rowena Beaty was born and grew up in Cumbria, in 2013 she returned to live on the Solway estuary.
'I work with stone because of the beauty and resonance of the material – it underlies the nature and form of landscape and speaks of the earth’s history over deep geological time. The Lincolnshire limestones I often use were laid down over 170 million years ago - they contain the imprints of organic life which are revealed through the process of carving.
I use traditional hand tools – hammer and chisel, rasps and files, instead of machine tools - to allow for a more direct and instinctive feel for the natural character of the stone I am carving.
Through my sculpture, I am interested in exploring a connection with the rhythms of the natural world. My work is figurative, based on the human form. I want the sculptures to express a gravity and stillness which evoke the origins and history of the material, but at the same time contain the latent energy of the body. The tension created through a duality of stillness and energy can be seen in Early Greek and Romanesque sculpture, which I have always been drawn to.'
