THE CANBERRA COLLECTION

It must have been back in 2019 or 2020 when I was touring London galleries that I first came across the work of Geoffrey Clarke. I had not known of his amazing mid-century sculptures before, but I was really taken by a very tall, narrow, angular, cast steel structure that incorporated glass set into deep recesses. In some ways it reminded me of the work of Roger Darricarrere which I have tried to emulate in my Darricarrere collection.

At that point I did nothing with the photo I took. Then in 2022 I attended the Masterpiece Collection in central London and came face-to-face with a maquette of a wall sculpture made my Geoffrey Clarke for the P&O liner SS Canberra. This piece was similar to the steel sculpture I had seen before, but this time I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this exposure to Geoffrey’s work. Thus, the Canberra collection was born.

Each piece was designed in my sketchbook with lots of rubbings-out and then carved in wax before being cast in sterling silver. I had bought the tiny Tourmalines that I decided to use in place of the glass in Geoffrey’s sculpture many years ago - probably around the same I time I first saw his work - but I had not found a reason to use them - this collection turned out to be that reason I had been searching for.