Countryside Magazine - Rosamond Lloyd Sculpture

Homes
CHOCOLATE BOX HOUSE:
The pretty Oxfordshire
home of Rosamond Lloyd
PICTURE PERFECT
Sculptor Rosamond Lloyd talks to Lorna Maybery about art and interior
design at her enchanting cottage in Oxfordshire
S
tep into the garden of sculptor
Rosamond Lloyd and you might
be forgiven for thinking you have
travelled back in time.
The artist’s home is a quintessentially
English cottage, picture perfect with its
skewed lines, wonky white walls and
uneven beams all topped with beautiful
tight thatching.
The quirky characterful exterior
continues once you step through the
threshold, revealing curving stairways, a
low-ceilinged snug and tiny windows at
impossible angles, all complemented
by Rosamond’s simple, yet creative
interior designs.
The 40-year-old has lived in the cottage
in Oxfordshire with her family for nine
years, and has used her creative talents to
CLEVER IDEA: The dining
table was built around a
supporting beam
102 | February 2014
Lorna Maybery
Lorna is Countryside’s
deputy editor who loves
being in the great outdoors
turn it into a cosy, comfortable, but stylish
and interesting place to live and work.
‘Parts of the cottage date back to the
16th century and I believe it was a farm
labourer’s cottage initially and was a lot
smaller than it is now,’ explains Rosamond.
‘The kitchen is a new extension done
before I bought it but I had to fit it out
internally, and the same for the living
room, which has a huge vaulted ceiling.
This adjoins a very small snug room with a
lovely fire, which makes you feel you are in
a Hobbit cottage, as it has a low ceiling and
wooden beams.
‘Previously, cottages always made me
think of dark and dingy places with a
tendency to be a little gloomy, and I think
what captured me about this place was the
modern area with the high ceiling, which
was so light and airy, with a contemporary
feel. And what’s lovely is you can mix old
and new without it jarring.
‘When I moved in all the beams were
painted black or white, so I stripped them
and sandblasted them, spent hours up a
stepladder filling in bits, varnishing and
waxing, introducing some slightly brighter
colours.’
One major challenge was in the dining
area, which, due to a supporting beam, was
a bit of a dead area.
‘It was a redundant area but with the
advantage of a large log burner. I love
entertaining and I also love doing crafts
and would spread all over a table, so
I needed a big central table. I called on the
skills of The Real Wood Furniture Company
in Woodstock, who make beautiful oak
furniture. We discussed it and planned it
and I did some drawings and we made the
table on site.
‘The beam that was in the way is a
supporting beam so we were rather stuck
that we couldn’t move it, so it seemed
obvious to just build the table around the
beam, which is what we did using big oak
panels. It’s a great sized table.
‘With the candles lit and the fire going
it’s beautiful. This is a cottage that comes
alive in the winter, it’s very cosy.’
As Rosamond shows me around, she
talks about her work as an artist and how
this helped with the interior design of the
cottage.
‘For my sculptures I set up picture
Countryside
INTIMATE: The low ceiling
gives the snug a homely feel
I love these funny little stairways and
doorways –it’s like a little Hobbit house
boards with different ideas before I focus
on one, so I had a couple of months that
I allocated for the house and did the same
thing, so I had a firm idea of what I wanted.
‘We love it, in the summer all the doors
and windows are open, and the outlook is
onto fields. In the winter I love the snug
room because you have to stoop to get in
there and there is a proper open fire so
sitting in there with a good book on a
winter’s evening is really nice.’
Throughout the house there is a feeling
of warmth and simplicity, with pale yellow
walls and country-style fabrics, both,
Rosamond admits, the result of a Swedish
influence. (Her son is half Swedish so she
spent periods of time in the country,
absorbing the style and the culture).
‘Sweden’s interior designs are beautiful;
I love the simplicity of it. Although my art is
quite complicated and complex, visually
I do like more sparseness and no clutter.
‘I like the brighter colours that the
Swedish use, like the yellow colour I have
used on a lot of the walls, but also I love
their neutrals, their whites and beiges that
make it look clean and simple but stylish.’
Her window dressings add a touch of
character to the cottage and are again,
Countryside
BRIGHT AND BREEZY: The
kitchen has a natural feel to it
Swedish in style.
‘I used Vanessa Arbuthnot fabrics with
rustic designs, heavily featuring hens. It’s a
bit of a Swedish thing, the layering of
fabrics in windows. Having blinds as well as
curtains is great for insulation.’
There are two sets of stairs in the house,
one leading to the main landing, and one
spiralling from the bedroom down to the
kitchen. Climbing the stairs to the landing
we are confronted with one of the smallest
windows I have ever seen.
‘These are tiny little windows, which
really add character – one goes through the
thatch and you can see it from the outside.
The upstairs is more cramped than
downstairs, which is one disadvantage of
the cottage because there is no extension
up here, which is a shame.
‘One bedroom leads into the other and
there is then a staircase from the bedroom
through to the kitchen. I love these funny
little stairways and doorways – it’s like a
little Hobbit house.’
We finally move into the garden,
surrounded by fields and with country
views and she takes me to her studio, a
converted garage with a large, floor-toceiling window that lets light flood in.
This is where she spends her days
working on exquisite clay models that
eventually become stunning bronze
figures. Her specialty is wildlife and at the
time of my visit she was working on a
February 2014 | 103
Building project
mother and baby rhino commissioned by
Cotswold Wildlife Park to celebrate the
birth of their first rhino for 43 years. The
model was amazing, so detailed despite
being only half finished.
On the walls are pictures of previous
works and it’s plain to see that there is real
talent at work. Whereas in her home
Rosamond likes uneven walls and wonky
lines, her work is all about precision and
intricate detail.
After university, where she studied
English and drama, Rosamond worked as a
press officer for Capital then Virgin radio.
Art had always been a passion though, and
she began to take on work as an illustrator.
‘I found that with every illustration
project I was making everything I had to
illustrate first in three dimensions and
I was drawn to working in this way. I spent
a period of time with a bronze sculptor
learning and absorbing as much as I could.
I learned mould-making techniques and
the first thing I made in the studio was a
gorilla’s head. A light bulb came on
104 | February 2014
Countryside
FROM LEFT:
The stairs to
the landing
where at the far
end there is one
of the house’s
tiny windows;
the dressing
table in the
bedroom; the
ceiling slopes
over the bed
adding
character to the
bedroom
Countryside
INTRICATE WORK:
Rosamond adds detail
to a lion’s head
immediately and I couldn’t put clay down
or the tools and I carried on and honed my
skills. I am rather self-taught, in that sense.
‘I took on a project when I finished that
apprenticeship, making a life-size
elephant’s head to go on a carnival float
which I was commissioned to make in four
days, which was challenging. I made this
huge structure using chicken wire, plaster
and paint and they were thrilled with it!
‘I then realised I didn’t want to just
make clay and break the pieces down,
I wanted to cast them in bronze.’
Rosamond went on to make a female
baboon with a baby on its back that was
nominated for the Wildlife Artist of the
Year, the David Shepherd Award.
‘It was a study of an olive baboon and a
baby and it was from a photo taken on
safari. I was a tired, exhausted mother at
the time and could completely relate to the
tired expression on this baboon’s face as
she walked along. It helped to push my
career path along and I got into more
galleries in London. I started to take
commissions from that point on and
people were picking up on the high level of
detail I have always loved doing.
‘I’m a real fur, feathers and features
person. Every client says they just want to
reach out and touch my work and that’s
what I am aiming for. I always have a notice
next to my bronzes on display saying
‘please do touch’ because that’s the whole
point of sculpture, it’s to engage all the
senses and not just visually or from behind
a barrier. I want people to touch and feel it
and hopefully get something from that.’
Rosamond has produced some
magnificent pieces including lions, giraffes
stallion heads, rhinos, and elephants, some
made as one-offs for clients and others
produced as limited editions bronzes.
‘I am looking forward next year to doing
British wildlife. I want to do a collection of
much smaller pieces, which are more
affordable too.
‘I can’t imagine now doing anything
else. I do love writing and music, I play the
piano, and I’m a great reader and I keep
these things up, because you never know
what might happen in the future, but
I cannot imagine being happier than when
I am in front of a big lump of clay.’
And she knows that after long hours in
the studio, the sanctuary of the house and
her family await across the drive, promising
roaring fires in cosy snug rooms with low
beams and wonky walls, where the world
beats a temporary retreat. Who could ask
for more?
l www.rosamondlloyd.com
February 2014 | 105