Gerard McCabe is a self taught artist, working in the sculptural medium, predominantly bronze cast by the ‘lost wax’ (cire perdue) method. This is a multi stage process, beginning with modelling from sketches, to moulds for casting, finishing and fettling work on the cast bronze, and culminating in ‘patination’ (colouring) of the finished piece. All stages including the casting (foundry work), are carried out by the artist himself. The subjects include realist life interpretations of the human form, animal studies, and forms inspired by landscape.
Gerard has work in collections throughout New Zealand, Australia, America, and England, and has been represented in many group shows. He has also undertaken many private commissions, (some listed below) and is particularly well represented in the field of ‘equestrian’ sculpture. Many of the major racing trophies in this country and Australia, have been sculpted by Gerard. He has been commissioned to make the annual ‘Horse of the Year Awards’ for the last six years.
“My ‘instruction and education’ as a sculptor, started early in my childhood. I spent a vast amount of time roaming the countryside and seashore, fascinated with the sheer variety of what I saw. When something particularly ‘grabbed my imagination’… the flight of seabird, cut clean against a blue sky, or a dew laden spiders web strung between two blades of grass, I remember wanting to freeze that perfect moment. I began to carry a sketchpad and pencil with me, to somehow give solidity to memory, and would often bring found items home, sketching to give permanence and meaning to the form. But one view never seemed enough to capture the essence of these things, so I began to model those persistent images and objects, and by variance of proportion and texture, and a three dimensional surface to capture light and shade, the possibilities seemed to expand. What the eye sees, and the hand executes, processed by imagination, to me, is the miracle of sculpture.
My work is drawn from all forms found in the natural world, be they human, animal, or landscape. It may be simply a moment in time, or a reinterpretation of form.”
