Miles Bodimeade

Miles Bodimeade shows a powerful conviction in the sculpture he makes. His overriding concern is for the human anatomy. He chooses to create in traditional materials - stone, wood and bronze. Yet one look is enough to tell you that this is the work of a contemporary artist, a sculptor with something to say and the skill to execute and impart it.

'Reach' and small Bath Stone Sculptures

Half Figure Mariner reverse

Barricade Figure reverse

Barricade Figure Bronze Height 29cm Width 45cm

Arm Wrestler(Monk's Park) Height 33cm

The sculpture has a calm, masculine strength, a defensive, protective watchfulness. Tool marks and striations imply a backstory of storms weathered and battles past. A broad range of textures break up the surface but the sweeping lines and profiles remain cut and defined. The arms are architectural shapes: buttresses, arches and walls. The central form is pierced, the shape recalling (for me at least) a lancet window or arrowslit.

Half Figure Mariner- Height 42cm Width 28cm

The form is solid, holding its ground and anchored in place by a massive hand. It seems to be braced against something approaching. His heavy forms are rooted to the spot.

There’s a lot of shell and quartz in this block and the layers of strata and sandy colour give the surface a soft, gentle shifting movement.

Half Figure Advancing Height 35cm (sold)

The front is a composition of sharp angles and sweeping curves. There are no features on his face but he is watchful and his sight-line focussed. He advances warily but he is physically powerful. To me there is something prowling in his movement.

Half figure advancing reverse

The back is fragmented with the planes and angles resembling a cubist landscape. Is it the memory of a landscape he carries with him? Or the thought of a destination he is travelling towards? Figuratively, the back has a completely different psychological feel to the front.

Arm Wrestler (Monk's Park) reverse