Rob Mulholland - Sculpture for Scotland

Rob Mulholland has been exhibiting successfully at Artery Gallery with his metal work for nearly three years. The vibrancy, and craftsmanship of his bowls in particular proving a real hit all year round.

He has recently had eight sculptures commissioned by Scottish Enterprise and Forestry Commission Scotland. The brief was to create representations of animals and birds as part of the natural food chain in the forest. The brief allowed for a certain degree of abstraction of the forms as long as they were still recognisable to the public.

Rob says, "My proposal aimed to develop each sculpture individually utilising different materials and methodology. I felt that it was also important to vary the scale and placing of each sculpture to add variety and interest to the trail."

The whole project has taken four months from the planning stage in January 2008 to the installation of the work and final completion at the end of April 2008.

The first of Rob's sculptures to be installed at the trail is the giant 'Osprey'. He explains, "With this sculpture I wanted to explore the form and movement of the bird. As the ideas developed I thought that it would be an interesting to construct the bird out of the type of small twigs that they collect to build their nests. I was keen to switch the materials and decided to use 6 and 8mm steel rode. The freedom offered by welding these small interlocking pieces allowed me to create varied masses within the form of the sculpture which makes the shape change as one moves around the Osprey. From certain angles the form becomes more abstracted."


Rob Mulholland was interviewed on BBC's 'Landward' programme which aired in May, by Nick Nairn on the installation of the Osprey sculpture, the first of eight for the new Loch Ard cycle trail in the Trossachs.

Rob's work can be purchased online at http://www.arteryuk.com/artists/Mulholland,Rob/