‘My recently finished plaque in Carrara marble of explorer and botanical illustrator Marianne North. She has a building in the grounds of Kew Gardens which houses her entire output of nearly 1000 paintings.
I was commissioned to carve a portrait of Marianne for Botanical Gardens near Alassio in southern Italy and suggested the idea of bringing one of her oil paintings to life by carving it alongside her portrait.
This came shortly after visiting the Grinling Gibbons carvings at Petworth House and I took inspiration from his carvings of the natural world for my piece.’
