Michael Bunn: From his own mouth

Michael Bunn was made aware of my blog posts and proved eager to participate. The following blog's content comes directly from an Email he sent me.

"I completed a Foundation Course in Art and Design at Doncaster College in the 1980’s and went on to study Sculpture at the then Leicester Polytechnic. My main concern was and, in many respects, remains making sculpture in forged and welded steel. Sometimes figurative and sometimes not depending on which series of works I’m engaged with and their original stating point and intention.

Most of my work is small in scale and designed for ordinary sized homes; book cases etc. however many would work on a much larger scale ‘transit van' size!.

I have worked on a number of commissions in steel but also in carved stone and wood. I have a sculpture in Doncaster on Bentley Community Woodland which is a four-tonne monument to the miners who worked at Bentley pit (Which includes one of my granddads)

And in 2005 I made a 42 ft long/high steel Dinosaur which was situated on the White Rose Way roundabout for a while.

As well as Sculpture, drawing and then collage and painting have been very important disciplines.

Drawing is my core activity; in sketchbooks generally or on a larger scale and of places that either have strong forms and associations (Like Doncaster Royal Infirmary; big, ugly, brutalist architecture but a great shape to work from) To Cusworth park close to where I grew up and somewhere that I often returned to when I moved back to Doncaster in the early 1990’s.The landscape has everything from strong strands of trees, moving clouds, reflections in water, distance and near detail and the opportunity to work from nature so close to town.

These drawings led onto painting and the challenge of oil paint and colour and very much an ongoing learning curve!

Collage offers opportunities to use images, and media that can let me address issues /concerns and interests that usually would not be part of my work, Collage also is a good way of maintaining the continuity of working but without the level of concentration required of Drawing and making sculpture.

Influences and heroes:

David Smith (Sculptor), Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Eduardo Paolozzi.

Graham Firth, Andrea Sutton.

And the usual pantheon of gods like Picasso, Braque, Julio Gonzales,

Chardin, Constable, Goya, John Piper to name a few."

That concludes this blog post. Thanks again to this artist, who diligently continues to assist at the D31 gallery.