Terence Coventry
b. 1938
Terence Coventry’s talent was recognised from a young age and he gained early admittance to Stourbridge School of Art, where he was taught by Keith Leonard, who later became Hepworth’s assistant. Coventry went on to study at the Royal College of Art, however his frustration after his request to change from the painting to sculpture course led him to leave London and find his second career as a farmer on the Cornish coast. Subjugating his natural talent and artistic ability for long hours on tractors, complete sculptural images repeatedly formed in Coventry’s mind. Eventually, these thoughts erupted into three dimensions, unencumbered by fashion or trend, to create sculptures that are intimately personal.
The power behind Coventry’s sculpture is his strong affinity with the subjects he creates. Rooted in a strong figurative tradition, his sculpture explores animals familiar to him such as birds, bulls, cows and boars and he eloquently captures both their ruggedness and gentleness, their movement and behaviour. Through a harmonious synthesis of these contrasting facets, Coventry expresses his fundamental relationship with his environment and produces images of great power and tenderness.
In each of these animal and human figures Coventry masters an amazing balance between anatomy and sculptural form. He distills and refines everyday subjects into powerful and monumental images that have a connection in all of us. Coventry exhibits widely and regularly, with his most recent one man show at The Bishops Palace & Gardens in Wells, Somerset. Many of his sculptures are held in public and private collections both in Britain and USA.
