Julie Tanner

I would describe myself as an “accidental sculptor”, as I discovered sculpting by chance. My career up until 2020 was that of a graphic designer. First working in a marketing agency for many years and then as a freelance designer. The freelance work only lasted for just over a year as the pandemic meant that work dried up. However, lockdown gave me the opportunity to discover sculpting. I very quickly realised that I needed a creative output, so began stone carving as my isolation challenge.
My parents asked me to carve a copy of a Stephen Page bison in some limestone they had lying around. So I borrowed some rudimentary tools and had a go. As a family, we had previously attended a 2 day stone carving workshop so I knew what I wanted to achieve, and the unseasonably warm weather meant that I could work outside almost every day until September, carving different animals and birds from polar bears to toucans to rabbits.
The colder weather forced me indoors where I discovered that the clay maquettes I was making for reference for the stone carving, were works of art in their own right and that I could preserve them by getting them cast. Needless to say, I was hooked! I go to bed thinking about sculpting, and wake up thinking about s...

2 week portrait sculpture workshop in Rome 2023

Week long sculpture workshop with 2 eminent sculptors in Santa Fe 2023

Four day figure sculpting workshop in Devon 2021

Cotswold Sculpture park