Neil Lemaire

How did you become an artist?

I think I was always destined to be an artist. I had an aptitude for story- telling early on and was always a dreamer at school. To be honest, I always wanted to be a biologist but never made the grades to study Science. Put simply, following what I was good at has got me to where I am now. When I finished school I studied Art and Design ‘A’ levels at the Isle of Man college and was put forward to study a degree, without doing a foundation course. So I studied sculpture and graduated with a degree in fine art.

After working in a few restaurants, I found a job in a London bronze foundry where I learned my trade. After 7 years of producing work for many prolific artists in the country, I found myself at a loss. I hadn’t earned enough money to make sculpture from a London location.

Eventually I changed tack and was lucky enough to pass the rigorous training to become a commercial diver, which eventually created to the funds to open my own studio. I now provide a bronze casting and mould making service to artists while producing my own sculpture and design objects for the home.

Tell us a bit about your process and the environment you work in.

Bronze casting is a very intensive and drawn - out process. First a silicone rubber mould is made of the original sculpture. From this mould a wax copy or ‘pattern’ is produced. The wax pattern is covered in a ceramic liquid, very similar to porcelain slip. Once the whole piece is ‘invested’ in a new ceramic mould, the whole thing is heated up and the wax melted out. This leaves a cavity that the bronze is then poured into. The ceramic shell is then knocked off and washed away with a jet hose. The cast bronze is then worked with power tools to remove any imperfections in the casting. And a chemical ‘patina’ is applied that can create a multitude of different colours including the colour we know as verdigris which is a green, ageing, oxidation of the metal.

Normally a bronze foundry is a large building, more akin to factory but I have scaled the process down, so I can cast small to medium sized pieces from my small workshop at Kew bridge steam museum.

What is your current inspiration and which other artists do you admire?

For most of my career, I have been producing works inspired by invertebrates like insects and marine animals, which is still of interest to me. But of late I have been producing more process based, abstract work, centred around the natural formations of molten liquids and metals. At the moment I am producing a series of bronze vessels and lamps under the project title ‘liquid spirit’ which clearly show the runs, drips and meniscus lines produced by cooling wax and metals.

My favourite artists are Jake and Dinos Chapman, Marc Quinn and Rebecca Warren. But I also love some of the great 1960’s artists who worked in bronze, like Eduardo Paolozzi, Lynn Chadwick and Henry Moore.

How has your work developed since you began and how do you see it evolving in the future?

When I graduated I was working in steel fabrication and blacksmithing. I was always trying to breath an influence from invertebrates into the work. Now I am less interested in creating these biomorphic pieces and favour the abstract qualities of the materials and processes that I work in.

In the near future I will be creating more interior design and architectural fixtures and fittings, like lamps, door handles.A new project I am currently working on is to produce a bronze wash basin.

In future I hope to create some large scale public sculptures around London and particularly Ealing. And have made a start by placing one of my 3m tall pieces outside Charlotte W5 in Dickens Yard, Ealing.

Which piece of equipment is indispensable to you when working?

The most important piece of equipment I use of note, is my furnace which I use to melt my metal to over 1,170 degrees Celsius. I built this machine myself over 8 years ago and has never failed me. Other tools I use is a TIG welder and numerous blow torches. But I took I always find in my hand is a good old trustworthy ball pien hammer!

If you could have a drink with one artist living or dead, who would it be?

I’d love to talk to Anthony Gormley, because he is very interested in the way art has evolved from the Stone Age, a subject close to my own heart. I have had the pleasure in the past of meeting and even having a drink with some of the most prolific artists around today. But one of my favourites is Nicola Hicks. An artist whose work I have worked on all my career and participated in the development of new techniques in the casting of her work. We share an interest in nature and a love for animals.

When working is there a particular genre of music or musician that you like to listen to?

I love putting Radio 3 on and allowing the calming backdrop of classical music to help me in my work. But sometimes I’ll put some 90s grunge on, or some thrash metal. Particularly when I am doing loud metal work!