Contemporary Bronze sculpture, Wood carving, Relief Carving, Wildlife Sculpture and HMS Victory.

Ian G Brennan: ‘Sculptor to the Most Noble Order of the Garter and Most Honourable Order of the Bath’ has been a professional Artist, Woodcarver and Sculptor for forty years working in a wide variety of subjects and materials, including wood, marble-resin, sterling, silver and bronze. Although Ian produces realistic and heraldic wood carvings and bronze sculptures, along with a variety of his limited-edition bronzes. The vast majority of Ian’s work involves creating detailed bespoke 'one off ' sculptures, some are larger than life, others less so, but all in a variety of different subjects and materials, commissioned from all over the world and others closer to home.

As a professional Sculptor for the past four decades, Ian has been commissioned to create a wide variety of often almost three hundred unique sculptures created in very fine detail for Private and Corporate clients from all over the world including over one hundred and thirty unique sculptures for the British Royal Household. These commissions have included creating sculptures for over one hundred Knights, four British Prime Ministers, twenty-eight British and European Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, Earls, Baroness’s, Lords and an Emperor.

Since 1984 Ian’s silver, bronze, wood and marble/resin sculptures have been placed in many diverse places including Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, The Royal College of Arms, Museums, Government Buildings, Company Receptions, Board Rooms, Churches, The United Grand Lodge of England, HMS Victory, Cunard Ships, Public Spaces and both Stately and Private art collections from all over the World.

Although there are several examples of Ian’s more recent sculptures on this website most sculptures shown here are his early work, as many of his commissions for private and corporate clients and particularly those for the Royal Household have not been included. However, contemporarysculptor.com still gives a good idea of the wide variety of style and detail that sculptor and woodcarver Ian G Brennan has created during the past four decades.

One moment Ian would be creating a bronze Unicorn for a private garden, to the next an eight feet wide ‘Bald Eagle’ carved from within the fork of a centuries old lime tree that blew down in hurricane force winds created for a Company reception area. An eight feet high ‘Mute Swan’ bronze for Lakeland in Florida, to a highly detailed sterling silver sculpture of a Hawk in flight for a Company Boardroom. To carve the ‘replacement sections of the Starboard side Entrance Port’ for Lord Nelson’s 18th century Flagship Victory

Ian has also been invited to give Talks and Presentations displaying his work from Burlington House, Home of the Royal Academy Chapel in Windsor Castle to the Dungeons beneath the Castle. Ian's fully illustrated Talks have also extended to the somewhat more salubrious surroundings and for the past three decades Ian has also been invited to give his fully illustrated talks and presentations onboard six Cunard Ships from the QE2, the QM2 and the latest Cunard Ship the Queen Anne.

In 1989 Ian G Brennan was officially appointed ‘Sculptor to the Most Noble Order of the Garter and the Most Honourable Order of the Bath’ and since that time he spends an average of five months a year, every year, working on a wide variety of unique sculpture commissions in both wood and bronze for the British Royal Household.

For the most part these commissions from the Royal Household are quite evenly spaced out throughout the year which enables Ian to also continue working on his Private and Corporate commissions in wood, silver and bronze, although during HM The Queens Golden Jubilee year, Ian was working on sixteen totally unique sculptures throughout that period, many of which were placed on public display in St George’s Chapel when the Crowned Heads of Europe also joined HM The Queen, other members of the Royal family and invited guests including Ian on many occasions, for the Jubilee ‘Order of the Garter Ceremony’ held at Windsor Castle.

Currently there are over seventy of Ian’s sculptures on public display in the ancient and historic settings of St Paul’s Cathedral, Henry V11 Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle. These commissions vary from creating many of the Coronets and Crowns for both British and European royalty and an Emperor. As well as produced detailed high bas-relief and three dimensions sculptures which include sculptures depicting animals, birds and the human form along with the more traditional heraldic carvings which include Regal Lions, Unicorns and Mythical Beasts.

Ian delivered HRH The Princess Anne; The Princess’s Royals gilded Coronet he created for the Princess’s installation as a Lady of the Garter in 1994. HM the Queen in procession at Windsor Castle, from the Royal Apartments to St George's Chapel during the annual instillation of Royal Knights, Knights and Lady Companions of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

In 2008 On St George’s Day at Windsor Castle Ian was kindly informed by HM The Queen that HRH Prince William; The Duke of Cambridge, was to become the 1000 Knight of the Garter since 1348, to hold this the highest Order of Chivalry and was later commissioned to create Princess Williams Royal Crest and Sword. The wide contrast of commissions over the decades both large and smaller also as diverse as one day creating a Crown for a Queen, to the next carving a Stag for a British Prime Minister and then delivering both sculptures to Windsor Castle to be placed on display in St George's Chapel in time for the Garter Service attended by HM The Queen and other members of the Royal family and during the past three decades Ian has also been Crown maker for several Kings and Queens of Europe.

The Crest and Crowns for King Harold V1 of Norway – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands – Prince William – King Felipe of Spain and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

During 2017/18 Ian also received fourteen sculpture commissions from the Royal Household all to be placed on display in Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle. These commissions varied from creating detailed sculptures of Falcon’s, Boars and Owls, to Badgers, Rams and Dogs, to then creating the gilded and jeweled Crowns for King Felipe V1 of Spain and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

Sculptor Ian G B has exhibited his wood and bronze sculptures in such diverse venues including aboard the QE2 to the City of London. To the next on the middle gun deck of HMS Victory and the Queens room aboard the QE2. Along with the more traditional venues in London and provincial Museums Art Galleries including on several occasions as Artist in Residence. During 1990 the Museum Service in England toured a large collection of Ian’s sculptures as a ‘one man’ exhibition to various museums throughout the year.

After a decade of exhibiting his sculptures in various Art Galleries and Museums up and down the land, his sculpture commission kept him so busy, particularly those regular commissions from the Royal Household for the past 35 years and although he occasionally still exhibits in Museums, he stopped exhibiting in art galleries with his last exhibition of mostly large realistic bronze sculptures held at the Mall Gallery in London in 1997.

Ian’s sculptures have also been created for television programs and can be found on books and magazine covers and Ian was even featured by Country Life as a ‘Living National Treasure’ and also on a set of Royal Mail Postage Stamps featuring Windsor Castle issued in 2017.

During the past three plus decades these commissions have varied from carving a Globe sculpture for a UK’s Corporation’s reception from within a centuries old Sequoia log. To carving a 5 feet high Coat of Arms for a medieval French Prince and two decades later creating the jeweled Crown for the Queen of England.

Although Ian’s career as a professional sculptor started in the mid 1980’s working mainly as a realistic wildlife woodcarver, within a few years his commissions also concentrated on depicting the human form also being produced in very fine detail in wood, silver and bronze. Although Ian tends to work quickly and is rather prolific, during 2018/19 having to alas turn down more commissions that he could accept there was still a two-year waiting period for Ian’s ‘private’ commissions. creating large and small highly detailed sculptures in marble/resin, wood and bronze sculptures. Including detailed sculptures depicting the Human form, to a pair of Horses. A Dog, a Golden Eagle in flight, to a pair of Kingfishers. Sculptures of an Otter and Elephant, to a large bas-relief carving of the Royal Arms. Sculptures of a Tawny Owl, another Dog and a bronze Knight in Armour riding horseback along with creating the jewelled and gilded Crowns for two European Kings.

The ‘Osprey catching a Pike’ and a Bald Eagle two of my early wood sculptures were carved from within the trunks of two massive trees that blew down in hurricane force winds just a few years after I first started teaching myself how to carve. It was once said by Michelangelo with marble, but is the same for wood “The sculpture was always inside the marble, it simply required releasing by the artist” Although I was no Michelangelo but we do share the same Star sign and although I didn’t have a customer for either of them at the time, I just and just wanted to see if I could do it.

Both centuries old fallen trees were kindly donated and looking at the massive trees just lying there on the ground, decided in one trunk there was a life size Osprey and inside the other a life size Bald Eagle, two of my favourite Birds of Prey just waiting to be set free and it took just a chainsaw, a few carving chisels and several months of effort to do just that.and the Bald Eagle was then part of the touring exhibition of Ian's work by the Museum Service.

Although Ian prefers to concentrate on creating original artwork and no longer gets too involved with restoration projects. Today, in the past he has rather enjoyed working with such organisations as the Royal Household, Private and Government organisations along with the Museum service and English Heritage to assist on a wide variety of historic replicating or restoration projects. Such commissions have included replacing or restoring antique, ornate plaster mouldings, figures and wood carvings, and bronze sculptures for Government buildings, Museums, Churches, restoring King Edward V111 Royal Garter Crest; Southwick House, the former Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in WW2 restoring ornate mirrors and picture frames. To restore an oak bench from the private gardens in Kensington Palace to carving a full-size replica of an 18th century ships figurehead for a museum and in 1990’s spending a year replacing whole sections of the starboard side Entrance Port.

The History in the Making-Spirit of Great Britain’ Collection’

In the early 1990’s Ian began work on his latest ‘hobby’ creating a totally unique 1;57 scale carved replica of Lord Nelson’s Flagship HMS Victory, entirely from the Ships original century’s old solid oak timbers The whole unique sculpture depicting HMS Victory has been carved from original oak removed from within the hull of the 18th century warship it replicates and nothing else including all the carved oak sails, 104 guns, signal flags, ropes and rigging, right down to the pod of dolphins riding the bow wave..

Along with building a collection of over forty totally unique sculptures created from old historic, often iconic British objects and materials. Some were simply recovered from a skip; other materials were kindly gifted by various people he worked with on restoration projects up and down the lands as they were all deemed to be beyond restoration. Some were recovered from historic buildings including old oak beams recovered after the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992. The collection also includes sculptures created from materials from HMS Victory, The Royal Yacht Britannia, the Cutty Sark, a classic J Class Yacht, a Rolls Royce, a 1940’s Supermarine Spitfire and even a carving from within a Dinosaur fossil from the Jurassic period found on a beach on the Isle of White in 20th century.

‘One of the Few’ A 1940’s Spitfire windscreen set in a frame carved from HMS Victory oak - ‘England and Saint George’ carved from within a roof beam removed from the St Georges’ Hall extensively damaged in the Windsor Castle fire. ‘A View from the Redoubtable’ ‘a scene carved from within one of HMS Victory’s original hull’s oak hull frames. - Running before the Wind’ carved in three dimensions from original oak timbers removed from HMS Victory. - - ‘Fire in the Hall’ An original wooden shield for a 17th century Knight of the Garter removed from St George’s Hall after the Great Fire at Windsor Castle.

During 2018/19 was a typical busy time and Ian’s commissions were all for a wide spectrum of clients, in both wood and bronze which included a local craftsman, two directors of an art foundry, an Australian professor, a Marshal of the RAF, an Admiral, four Knights of the Realm, three Lords, a former Olympic Gold Medallist and two European Kings and three others. The Crown for King Felipe V1 of Spain was completed in May 2018, twenty-nine years after I produced a similar Crown for the King's Father, King Juan Carlos which was placed in St George’s Chapel. In early June 2019, the Crown also being worked on for King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was placed alongside the similar Crown I produced thirty year earlier for the King's Mother, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

Both of which were placed on display in St George’s Chapel in time for the annual Order of the Garter Service held at Windsor Castle, attended by HM King Charles as the Sovereign and Queen Camila along with other members of the royal family, Knights of the Garter and invited guests beneath over thirty of Ian’s carved, painted and gilded Crests, Coronets and Crowns placed on both sides of the historic chapels in Westminster Abbey and the medieval chapel St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle where in 2022 HM King Charles 111 made his first Christmas address to the Nation and beyond.

St Georges’ Chapel Windsor. - Christmas 2022

2023 remains part of a busy decade as amongst others, sculptures were a ‘Bust of a Man’ originally worked in clay to be cast in bronze, along with an also finely detailed ‘Hawk in Flight’ sculpture originally carved from wood also to be cast in bronze were complete. Three of the latest sculptures for the ‘History in the Making’ Collection and a pair of carved painted and gilded Coat of Arms along with the remaining three of almost 140 sculpture commissions for the royal household completed since 1989 during the reign of HM The Queen Elizabeth 11. Including more recently the gilded and bejewelled Coronet for the Queen Consort for St Georges' Chapel in Windsor Castle and a carved and painted Golden Eagle in Flight for Henry V11 Chapel in Westminster Abbey both completed in time for the King's Coronation at Westminster Abbey in May.

Recently completed for the royal household now in the reign of the HM King Charles 111, included commissions of sculptures depicting a Dog, Panther and Mute Swan for Windsor Castle and the Crown for Queen Camilla which were placed alongside around thirty other totally unique sculptures currently on display in the medieval St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle and shortly afterwards Ian was kindly informed by the royal household that the designs for two more sculptures for Windsor Castle were being prepared for him to work on to be completed early next year which will once again ensure he is able to also continue to work on other commissions and finally after three decades he should hopefully also be able to put the finishing touches to the History in the Making Collection/Spirit of Great Britain Collection’ which consists of unique sculptures for the future created from often iconic historic pieces from the past. Objects and materials which were actually there when history was being made and the substance of the sculptures as such unlikely to be replicated by any 3-D printer in the modern world.

One day in 1976 I decided to give up my full-time career as an assistant research and development engineer working in clean room conditions in a laboratory surrounded by the latest cutting-edge technology. To the next in far less spotless conditions making furniture surrounded by hand tools that had seen better days in a dusty shed I originally built to store my motorbike then requisitioned to make furniture full time, I had previously been making part time. Then in my mid-twenties I had a midlife crisis having decided my new forever career was to be a carpenter just like my Grandad, until fate decided otherwise. When a decade the transformation from a part time carpenter to full time cabinet maker was up and running like a saw after moving into a much larger workshop fully equipped with the finest three-phase woodworking machinery to cope with a full order book and after many months of early starts and endless late nights working as a one-man band trying to keep up with my ever-increasing repertoire, when overnight the business burnt down when I finally did manage to get some sleep.

My new career from a cabinetmaker to sculptor began in 1984 when I found myself with no stock, machinery, tools, or a workshop with walls and especially a roof. Waiting customers who had paid stage and final payments for their recently completed furniture including a cedar wood kitchen corner seating unit and table. A fully fitted solid oak kitchen and the remaining solid mahogany galley units recently completed for the classic 1930’s J Class Yacht Velsheda. All highly polished and just waiting delivery, but then just a pile of burnt embers lying beneath the soles of my increasingly warming up boots. Fragments of blackened timbers occasionally still glowing from the intense heat of the fire recently extinguished by the local fire brigade who with a job well done and heavy red hoses rolling up and after wishing me luck, were soon on their way. Blackened burnt timbers covered by layers of thick grey dust that in the odd place underneath were glowing red hot and with each gust of wind, fragments of what remained of my business, income and customers furniture orders would gently fly away into the night sky like tiny Chinese lanterns……

Then realising I had made a silly mistake with renewing my business insurance policy, subsequently left me uninsured and standing in the blackened rubble amongst the still smoking burnt out workshop as Dawn was about to rise with a dozen or so of large three-phase woodworking machines that were caught in the centre of it all, still hot to the touch. Machines that only the day before were warm in other ways as they were busily earning their keep along with another bag of fresh bedding for next door's rabbits. Being free-lance I soon found myself with no prospects of earning income anytime soon along with a five-figure overdraft residing with a Bank who did not bear bad news well and did not believe that patience was a virtue as Head office strongly advised me to take my overdraft elsewhere as they no longer wished to lend their no doubt ample funds with the likes of me.

As a result, the house which I had purchased a decade earlier along with a large garden and a small mortgage from the compensation I received for my injuries and the wages lost over the years waiting for them to heal, after being knocked of my motorcycle on Good Friday by a Van in a hurry and the house that the crash built, was then at risk of being reposed effectively if I couldn’t make something from nothing and the monies deposited in a pretty timely fashion…...

However, if at the time I had simply renewed my business insurance correctly like most people tend to do and have done so in the past. I would have simply replaced all my tools, machines and timber with the insurance and moved into a new workshop with electricity, walls and especially a roof. Take on staff to help with my full order book and would simply started again like you do and I should have done, but fortunately as it later transpired as a consequence of my inability to fill in a form correctly, the sculptures shown here and the hundreds of sculptures not shown here, commissioned from all over the world would most likely never have existed……..

" If only I could have known on that fateful day of the fire on May the 7th 1984 when I was standing amongst the ruins of my workshop and career trying to find something, anything that could be salvaged from the fire to use or sell to try and make ends meet. I would discover as dawn was rising, the inspiration for a totally new career hidden deep beneath the blackened rubble of my workshop and career that every night was being transformed into the local tip. That 21 years to the very day, I would instead be standing in the St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle exhibiting wood and bronze sculptures I was not aware I was capable of creating.

Along with over seventy other sculptures commissioned at the time by the royal household and twice as many sculptures’ years later. many of which are placed on public display upon the walls in the historic medieval chapels in Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey, having been invited to give a 'Talk' at Windsor Castle about my new career as a professional sculptor and woodcarver literally for Emperors and Kings and Queens from all over the World and also much closer to home.

Although within a decade my skill set, place of work and work attire would change dramatically and that I would kindly be invited to attend the historic ceremonies at Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle for the installation of the last Knights, Princes, Princesses, Kings and Queens beneath the created for the past thirty five years for the latest Knights of the Bath and Knights of the Garter in the medieval Chapels beneath the Crowns, Coronets and Crests that everything should eventually work out fine in the end, if you just hang on in there. Things might not have been quite so worrying at the time; but you don’t do you”.

Success at anything of course is relative and to some it comes easy, to others they have to work hard for it, but to me it came as a big surprise……..Working in a career I would never have thought r be capable of doing even as a hobby let alone for a living would result in my creating over three hundred unique sculptures in a studio I built in my back garden from materials that were ‘fly tipped’ amongst the remains of my burnt out workshop. To then creating sculptures using carving chisels found at the back of a draw of a bandsaw cabinet purchased as a job lot at a local auction, which would then help create sculptures placed on display in historic places including Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, The Royal College of Arms, Museums, Government buildings, Universities, Churches, the United Grand Lodge of England, Company receptions, HMS Victory, Cunard Ships, Public Spaces and both Stately and Private homes all over the World.

Including creating sculptures for over one hundred Knights, four British Prime Ministers, twenty-seven British and European Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, Earls, Lords and an Emperor.

Forty years after I lost my furniture making business in the fire I would be watching King Charles 111’s Coronation on the television with all its timeless Pageantry, Grace and Style enjoying the moment and just a few feet away was the Crown commissioned for Queen Camila placed on the dining table whilst the gilding dries away from the dust and stuff in the studio where it was being worked on alongside the Knight of the Garter Crest commissioned for former British Prime Sir Tony Blair. being worked on alongside other commissions and also alongside the local visiting wildlife which is just one of the joys about living and working alongside a nature reserve for the past if I leave the studio door open.

The Bas-relief relief carving being carved from an original piece of centuries old Victory oak removed from the orlop deck during the restoration process where centuries earlier Admiral Lord Nelson lay mortally wounded. Once completed the ‘Temeraire Revisited’ bas-relief oak carving will be part of the ‘History in the Making -Spirit of Great Britain’ Collection’ currently being worked on, which are all being created from original historic British objects and materials that were actually there when history was being made.

Along with the centrepiece of the Collection, the 47 inches long Victory Sculpture, ‘Sailing before the Wind’ carved entirely from original oak beams removed from the very ship it replicates and nothing else. Including the 104 carved guns, 32 carved oak sails, all the carved oak ropes, rigging, pennants, and signal flags displaying Nelson’s famous signal “England Expects that every man will do his duty”.

This particular journey over the decades along with all its ups and downs on the way including from 1992 to 2023 having been invited by Cunard to cruise the seven seas and a few oceans along the way from the QE2 to the QM2 and also on the madden Voyage of one of the latest Cunard Ships to give fully illustrated, informative and often inspirational talks about my work and career as a professional sculptor and how it all came about.

Often after my Talks it has been suggested I really should write a book about it all and a few years ago decided to do so which will include many of the high and low points and so much more in between, with unedited sections of the first draft to be added here shortly and perhaps a much longer version later at www.ohwhatnow.co.uk.

Ian G Brennan

ian@iangb.co.uk

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