Nature and Art Flog It! Travels Around Britain

Whilst filming Flog It! I've travelled the length and the breadth of the British Isles

and during this time, I've had the opportunity to meet some great British artists

and to view art in the most perfect settings.

Whilst in Gloucestershire, I dropped by a unique gallery

that's dedicated to the combination of nature and art.

And I met a talented artist, whose previous career has dictated

his favourite subject.

But firstly, whilst in Exeter, I got the chance to indulge one of my great passions - sculpture.

And what a glorious setting - Exeter University's sculpture park.

# In the days between the hours

# Ivory towers, bloody flowers

# Push their heads into the air

# I don't care

# If I ever know

# There I go... #

Sculpture - what is it and why is it so important?

Well, to me, it's one of the most important aspects of the visual arts

because it's three-dimensional. You can walk around it,

view it from every single angle,

and hopefully touch it. It's very much like these trees here.

That's living, breathing sculpture

that's found its own shape and form.

But there is some sculpture that artists create -

they chip away the layers from pieces of stone.

And it's that concentration of energy and time and love

that creates a spirit. And it's that spirit that provokes us into thinking.

It's quite radical. And it should shock you into thinking, "What is it all about?"

And everybody has a different point of view.

There's over 20 sculptures here, all carefully placed.

There's too many to look at, so I'm just going to pick on half a dozen.

This has got to be my favourite. It's by Barbara Hepworth,

and it is cast in bronze. It's hollow bronze. Listen to this.

SCULPTURE ECHOES

But I'll tell you what -

I feel really privileged to be able to touch this and add a bit more patina.

The fact that it's outside - it's still constantly evolving and changing.

It's sort of been weathered by the elements. It's getting a ravishing throughout the four seasons.

It's great to see sculpture at different times of the year

because the light creates different shadows on it.

It's an interpretation of mother and child, and you can see the female point of view, can't you,

when you look at that? It really is awesome.

Somebody who studied at the Leeds College Of Art with Barbara Hepworth,

one of her contemporaries and possibly the world's most renowned sculptor is Henry Moore.

Now, there should be a Henry Moore plonked right here

on this plinth.

But because there's been such a spate of theft in the art world recently,

the statue has been taken away to have a tracker device fitted so nobody can pinch it.

It's titled Reclining Connected Forms and it's exactly what you'd expect

of Henry Moore. Wonderful, soft, organic, flowing lines.

Moving away from the soft organic lines we've just seen, I've come across this.

which is very architectural. It's by Devon-born artist Paul Mount,

who was born in Newton Abbot in 1922.

He's still working today and he's got a studio down in Cornwall in St Just.

And it's called Skysails, and you can see why, can't you?

It really does brighten up this sort of very austere, boring brickwork.

You could imagine it with a bright blue sky behind it.

It's a bit dull today, but you'd almost think you were at sea, wouldn't you?

It's constructed of iron and stainless steel

and it really does reflect the atmospheric conditions that you see during the four seasons.

There's constant change going on.

I absolutely adore this piece. It's called Man Of The World,

and it's by Hungarian-born sculptor Peter Peri,

and it's been here since 1960.

I love the fact that it's sort of... It's a bit like Superman coming out the side of a building.

To appreciate it, you've got to be where you are right now - looking right up so you can see the sky

and this sort of man reaching out saying, "My future's out there. That's my world!"

I think he's inspired many students here at the university.

MUSIC: "Find The River" by REM

# A fortune for the undertow

# All of this is coming your way... #

It's just great to see and feel art in such glorious surroundings.

'I've also had the opportunity to meet the artists themselves.

'Whilst in Chippenham, I dropped in to see a sculptor who happens to be an ex-jockey.

'Phil Blacker makes life-size models of racehorses inspired by his years in the saddle.'

How did you make the transition from top jockey to top sculptor?

Well, it was a bit of luck, really.

I was driving down to the races one day in the '70s,

and we stopped, picked up the owner of the horse I was riding.

It turned out to be a lady called Margot Dent, who was a sculptor.

We got talking, and I told her I'd always had an interest in sculpture,

but never actually done it. I used to paint at school, but never sculpted.

And she said, "Look, why don't you have a go?"

And when there was no racing, I went down to stay with her and her husband and that's how I got started.

I wanted to capture the excitement and the energy,

and I didn't feel that anybody quite got it.

And the fact that I was race-riding every day,

I knew exactly how a jockey changed his hands on his reins,

and how horses inter-react in a race, and all that sort of thing.

I wanted to capture all of that.

But when I started to re-create them three-dimensionally, I found I didn't know that much about it.

So I had to study the anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College.

Is this one of your first pieces? I can't take my eyes off it. It's absolutely striking.

That's a pretty early piece.

It was commissioned by Sheikh Mohammed, of his horse, Pebbles when she won in America.

And it's got Pat Eddery, the jockey, riding her.

And I've kept this piece because I was particularly proud of it at the time.

It was a real example of my early passion about it.

-And struggling, and getting it right.

-Yeah.

What I want to know is, how do you achieve it?

Well, if you follow me, I'll show you!

Right, this is a statue I'm doing at the moment.

-This is for Malaysia.

-Gosh! He's lovely.

What I want to know is what's going through your mind. Say you get a commission, somebody's racehorse.

Obviously, you start with your sketches and your studies and your photographs.

Yes. I'd probably make two, three, four trips, doing sketches, drawings, photographs,

and then you'd bring it back, you'd decide on the pose,

which very much depends on the temperament of the animal and what the client wants.

And then you make a maquette. A small-scale model.

In this case, it was slightly easier cos the horse was no horse in particular. It wasn't a portrait.

It just wanted to capture the controlled power of the dressage horse.

It's very much a power thing.

And that one there, is that actually made in the solid? That solid clay, or is there a frame in there?

There is a frame in there.

This is obviously not the same position,

but this frame is there to support the clay.

So, as you can imagine here,

there is a wire frame, made out of aluminium,

attached to this stand.

When you get a big piece like this, you can't make it solid.

Once the frame is made, I then wrap the whole thing in chicken wire.

This is the traditional way of doing it.

And then, the exciting moment, when you've done all that,

and you start to put the clay on.

And the clay will probably be...

-Oh, my word!

-..that thick.

How much does that weigh? Do you know?

This has got about a ton of clay on it.

You're never going to move that,

so I guess it's cast here. They come to take mouldings from it here, do they?

Yeah, they come for a week,

and they make plaster casts in seven sections.

The four legs, the tail, the head and the body.

And they take the cast away, and they cast it into bronze,

and after about four months, it takes four months to cast,

-it emerges in bronze.

-Very labour-intense, isn't it?

What sort of cost are we looking at?

Well, the casting is tens of thousands of pounds,

but to commission something like this is around the £80,000 mark.

No doubt it's going to be a very sound investment of the future.

These are the antiques of the future, the Phil Blackers, that's for sure!

I suppose they are!

'Philip's sculptures continue a great tradition. A combination of nature and art.

'Art inspired by nature is a theme that dates back to the very origins of artistic expression,

'and remains popular to this day.

'It is therefore surprising that the fusion of art and nature,

'a theme with such strong heritage, has been under-represented in galleries,

'and until recently, didn't even have a home in Britain.

'While in Gloucestershire, I visited Nature In Art,

'a unique and stunning collection of art inspired by nature.

'A collection that spans 15,000 years, 600 artists and 60 countries.'

'Simon Trapnell is the Trust director and one of its founders.'

So, why set up such an important collection in the middle of nowhere?

What's the inspiration of the work in the museum? It's nature. Does it make sense being in a concrete jungle?

It makes more sense to be in a greener environment where we can make a link

between what's inspired the artists and the art itself.

Being in a place like this enables us to do that.

One of the collection's most important artists has to be the late Sir Peter Scott.

Sir Peter was the first president of Nature In Art Trust.

He was a great inspiration to us, not just as an artist, but because of his local links in the county.

Exactly. Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust.

It brings back schoolboy memories for me as I stayed there as a student for about a week.

I did the summer school and drawing in the wetlands and in the huts looking at the birds in the hides.

I'm sure he's responsible for countless people after you getting to grips with loving birds,

and loving drawing birds.

He knew his subject so well. That understanding of the subject comes out in his paintings.

Also the place, the environment, the atmosphere, the mist

and all those sort of things that give the picture life

and it may not have every last feather painted on the bird,

but that doesn't matter

because it tells you so much without those things.

The space is quite important.

-Very important.

-Less is best sometimes.

-Quite often.

Wow, look at this. I really wanted you to talk about this,

because I don't know who's done it, but they're so talented. They know how to use a pencil.

It's like a photograph - a photographic representation.

We love to celebrate different media and pencil is such a simple media.

This is by Terence Lambert

and Terence is possibly a name that many people will know.

He's illustrated bird books for Collins and Reader's Digest

and in many ways is known as an illustrator.

I feel this is a picture

where he's not been doing something for somebody else's purposes,

or schedule, but this is something he's done for the fun of it,

for himself.

In a way that's what a museum like us can do -

have the opportunity to show those special pieces

that are done just for the love of it.

So you've got to be a real animal lover as well.

Yeah. He loves and knows his birds.

It's the old thing - a consistent theme through the collection

would be that successful pictures rely on people knowing their subject

-and hopefully loving their subject.

-Yeah.

-Here's the king of the jungle.

-This is a lion by William Timym,

an Austrian sculptor who came over just before the Second World War.

Like many sculptors,

he's somebody who perhaps the name doesn't mean anything,

but all of us may have come across his work one way or the other.

-He was a cartoonist on Punch.

-Really?

-He did cartoons for Blue Peter,

but he was best known for his animal sculptures

and he gave us this sculpture

and, one of the lovely things,

gave us the sketches and things that he did

-that goes with it and the studies and so on.

-Yeah.

He was out in the field watching the beasts roaming the plains.

Absolutely.

I feel sometimes I've seen paintings and sculptures of lions and in a way

you get the feeling that the lion wouldn't say boo to a goose,

-and most lions do and this is something that is incredible...

-Menacing.

If not menacing at least it's a lion.

William, like a good cartoonist,

is going to have to capture the essence of the subject.

GROWLING