Heather Jansch (born Heather Rosemary Sewell) was a British sculptor notable for making life-sized sculptures of horses from

driftwood __NOTOC__ Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea, lake, or river by the action of winds, tides or waves. In some waterfront areas, driftwood is a major nuisance. However, the driftwood provides shelter and fo ...

. Jansch reported that she struggled in her youth academically, but had a passion for drawing and writing. She attended

Walthamstow Technical College Waltham Forest College Waltham Forest College is a stand-alone Further Education College in North East London with circa 2000, 16-19 year old students on full time study programs and 5000 adult students mainly studying part time, in addition to a ...

for her Foundation year and from there gained a place at

Goldsmith's Goldsmith's was a department store founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1870 by German immigrant brothers Jacob and Isaac Goldsmith. It grew into a chain largely located in the Memphis metropolitan area, until 2005, when the nameplate was eliminated ...

. This proved a great disappointment, as figurative art was greatly derided there at the time. She left after the first year. While at Walthamstow, in 1967, she had met the musician Roy Harper. It was Harper who introduced her to the already renowned guitarist Bert Jansch, whom she married in 1968. They had a son, Kieron, now a filmmaker, in 1971. They separated in 1974 and divorced some years later. She bought a small hill farm in Dyfed, breeding Welsh cobs and specialized in painting traditional

equestrian portrait An equestrian portrait is a portrait that shows the subject on horseback. Equestrian portraits suggest a high-status sitter, who in many cases was a monarch or other member of the nobility, and the portraits can also carry a suggestion of chivalry ...

s until starting to sculpt in the 80s. Discovering

as a medium for sculpture proved revelatory. Heather spent many years perfecting the translation of her complex work into bronze, pioneering a technique that made them indistinguishable from the driftwood original. By 1986 she was exhibiting sculpture regularly with Courcoux and Courcoux, a leading provincial contemporary gallery then based in Salisbury that took her work to the London Contemporary Art Fair where it received very favourable reviews. Her life-size driftwood horses became her hallmark and in 1999 were featured in the Shape of the Century 100 Years of Sculpture in Britain at

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buildi ...

. The exhibition was then taken to London's

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...

as part of the millennium celebrations in 2000 where her horses caught the attention of

Tim Smit Sir Timothy Bartel Smit KBE (born 25 September 1954) is a Dutch-born British businessman, famous for his work on the Lost Gardens of Heligan, the Eden Project, and the Charlestown Shipwreck & Treasure Centre, all in Cornwall, England. Early li ...

, founder of the

Eden Project The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS E ...

; she was invited to become one of their resident artists. Her horse was voted the most popular art work there and has since become widely known as The Eden Horse. There are pieces by Heather Jansch in private collections around the world including in the US, Canada, Switzerland, France and Romania. She exhibited internationally on a number of occasions, including, in 2007, as artist in residence at Arte Sella in Borgo Valsugana, Italy. A life-long writer, in 2009 Jansch set up Olchard Press. She published ''"Heather Jansch's Diary"'', ''"Bert Jansch: Living with the Legend"'' about her life with Bert, and ruminations on her expeditions to Italy, ''"The Italian Job"'', released in Summer 2021. She died, following a stroke, on 5 July 2021 at Olchard, Devon.

Picture gallery

File:The Eden Horse by Heather Jansch 2002.jpg, alt=The Eden Horse by Heather Jansch, 2002. On display at Heather's garden in Olchard prior to delivery to The Eden Project., The Eden Horse by Heather Jansch, 2002. On display at Heather's garden in Olchard prior to delivery to The Eden Project. File:Chinoise by Heather Jansch 2007.jpg, alt=Chinoise by Heather Jansch, 2007. Bronze., Chinoise by Heather Jansch, 2007. Bronze. File:Heather Jansch flanked by Atlantis and The Eden Horse.jpg, alt=Sculptor Heather Jansch, flanked by two of her life-size horses. "Atlantis" on Heather's right, and "The Eden Horse" on her left., Sculptor Heather Jansch, flanked by two of her life-size horses. "Atlantis" on Heather's right, and "The Eden Horse" on her left. File:Sculptor Heather Jansch next to her work "The Young Arabian".jpg, Sculptor Heather Jansch standing next to the latest cast of her work "The Young Arabian"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jansch, Heather 1948 births 2021 deaths 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English women artists 21st-century British sculptors 21st-century English women artists Alumni of Walthamstow College of Art Contemporary sculptors English women sculptors People from Rochford District 20th-century women sculptors 21st-century women sculptors