To be able to put all of your heart and soul into a sculpture you need not only to design and conceive it, but also to process it yourself. This is a very strong conviction of Rowan Gillespie’s. He does all the casting himself, even the extremely heavy bronzes, which carries a degree of risk. “The moment I have to stop casting, I have to stop working with bronze”, he says.

Bronze casting needs great concentration and discipline. Gillespie casts his bronze using the old block moulding method of lost wax casting. He uses this rather than the newer ceramic shell technique, using few modern aids to smooth the process. He does this because he believes in the quality of directness in this way of casting. Always respectful of the dangers of the red molten bronze, never too confident, this attitude contributes to the intensity of a sculpture.