Geoffrey Dashwood was born in Hampshire in 1947. At the age of fifteen he won a place on merit to study fine art at Southampton College of Art but preferring an outdoor life and studying directly from nature he left soon afterwards.

For five years he worked for the Forestry Commission as a keeper in the New Forest but after illustrating a New Forest guide for the Commission most of his time was soon taken up illustrating for them, the Countryside Committee, Hampshire County Council and for various others. This work gave him the confidence to become a freelance artist and for the following ten years he concentrated on illustrations, drawings and watercolours.

However, in 1980 Geoffrey discovered a preference for working the three dimensions of sculpture. His first pieces were highly detailed realistic studies echoing his earlier drawings, very much in the mainstream tradition of English wildlife and sporting art and comparable in style to the famous 19th century French animalier school of sculpture. Although commercially successful Geoffrey became increasingly dissatisfied with the restrictions of devout realism and lack of personal expression.

Finally he broke away to create larger, boldly modelled sculptures which, contrastingly, are a very personal interpretation of nature. Their individuality is further determined and enhanced by the application of original fine coloured and multi-coloured patinas. The essential character and personality of a species is well established in bronzes which, more importantly, succeed and please as pure sculptural form.

His unusual lifestyle and approach to art was the subject of a half-hour documentary film made by TVS. Over the last ten years Geoffrey's sculpture has won many awards, including best sculpture at the Society of Wildlife Artists, three years running and also first prize for sculpture at the International Festival De L'Art Animalier, Loire Valley, France. Many of his models have been selected by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum for exhibition in their annual shows.

In addition, his lifesize sculpture was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition held at the Nature in Art Museum in Gloucestershire, England in July 1991, the first living artist the museum accorded with such an honour. In 1994 his "Barn Owl" was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show, with the entire edition selling out before the close of the show, followed by the enormous success of his 6 foot high 'Harrier' in the 1996 show, the first of his monumental pieces followed by his 7 ft. high 'Owl' in 1998.In 2001 he was accorded the honour of a retrospective show at the Lymington museum in southern England. His huge Owl has been recently installed at the main entrance to the Financial Services authority building in canary wharf, London.

Geoffrey's bi-annual exhibitions at the Sladmore continue to create enormous excitement with whole editions of bronzes selling out in days. Our sister gallery in New York - the James Graham Gallery - continues to have success with their regular shows, and in between Geoffrey, fit in shows in Paris and the Far East.

In 2001 he had an incredible response to his work at the first Moscow art fair, with massive crowds crammed on to his stand.In 2002 his monumental Mandarin was selected by the Leigh Yawkey museum for an outdoor show.

He continues to push the boundaries of his chosen subject and is
already working on exciting new monumental sculptures and an incredibly complicated multiple subject piece. Our recent open day
at his beautiful studio and gallery in the new forest was a huge
success.

artist's statement
"Why do I sculpt birds? Well I can and have sculpted other subjects, various animals and the human figure but birds have been a personal passion since childhood and I am constantly and inexplicably drawn back to them for inspiration.

They are incredibly diverse in their evolutionary forms and characteristics and they are all, of course, aerodynamic and therefore have the inherent qualities for strong sculptural interpretation.

I wish to remain true to the idiosyncrasies of individual species yet I am aware that simplification and abstraction strengthens and clarifies. Anatomy is resolved into forms which communicate essential physiological and psychological properties. The emphasis is thereby placed on the aesthetic rather than the mere descriptive aspects of sculpture. This, for me is a timeless and universal language of pure form. "