Martin Duffy

Martin has been a professional figurative sculptor since 1996. He studied figurative sculpture at Stafford Art Collage, under the R.B.S. sculptor Michael Talbot. Prior to this he was a professional woodcarver. He has also worked as an assistant to a number of sculptors including John McKenna, Jonathan Wylder and Irena Sedlecka.

Since 2002 Martin has solely worked on his own sculpture and has specialised in commissions covering a wide variety of subjects including dancers, children, animals, portraits and motor sport. He also has a range of limited edition sculptures covering a range of subjects including children, dancers and animals cast in bronze and other materials for the garden and home.

‘I try to create powerful and dramatic sculptures, which have a beauty of form. Sculpture should be tactile, drawing the viewer to want to interact physically as well as visually with the work. With a life time fascination with the way the body moves, I enjoy the challenge of capturing the essence of movement, balance and tension within a static sculpture’

Always preferring to work whenever possible with life models it can take many months to produce a new life size sculpture. Once completed Martin always moulds his own work to make sure none of the detail is lost during this process. When the sculpture is cast in bronze, he takes a resin copy from his mould to ensure there is a hard copy as reference for him to work on the wax prior to casting, but also for use at the foundry once the bronze has been cast to ensure the same level finish and detail is retained in the final work.

Throughout the whole process Martin is able to control the quality and purity of the work even though the bronze casting is done at the foundry. Martin only uses British foundries to ensure his involvement at every stage of the casting and finishing. All non bronze sculpture is made from start to finish by him in his studio ensuring the highest standards of finish.

Martin’s work is exhibited at many outdoor sculpture exhibitions and he has been a regular exhibitor at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. His work is in private collections in Great Britain, America and Asia. He has been commissioned to produce work for many private clients as well as companies including in 2012 a commission to produce a sculpture for the entrance hall of one of the Olympic training venues.