In his twenty-five year farming career spent in long hours on a tractor ploughing and harvesting, complete sculptural images repeatedly formed in Terence Coventry’s mind. Eventually, these thoughts erupted into three dimensions - unencumbered by fashion or trend - to create sculptures that are intimately personal.
Rooted strongly in the figurative tradition, the power behind Coventry’s sculpture is his strong affinity with the subjects. His sculpture explores the animals familiar to him from his years farming ,such as birds, bulls, cows and boars, eloquently capturing their ruggedness and gentleness, their movement and behaviour.
Inspired by Marino Marini, Giacomo Manzu and Lynn Chadwick, Coventry works in a range of materials, from ferrous concrete and steel to bronze and silver, whilst also being a skilful draughtsman and printmaker. Talking about the making processes for his sculpture, he said:
"A lot of what I do is about solving problems and the more knowledge you have of how you solved the previous problems the more you can apply them to the next ones. With steel in particular it’s about being conscious of what the practical possibilities are so that you can try and treat the medium with some sort of respect. Plaster is much more organic, you can manipulate it and make curves, whereas steel is more restrictive so there’s an inherent discipline to it. To counter this rigidity, I try to introduce a subtlety of message into the work that gives the viewers eyes a journey through the piece...I don’t expect the viewer to be aware of that but I feel very satisfied to get a subliminal structure, even on the plaster works, that leads the eye forward."
Pangolin London is pleased to represent the estate of Terence Coventry.