Equestrian Sculpture By Frippy Jameson

Frippy Jameson (born 1978), who now lives and works in the Scottish Borders, studied Fine Art Sculpture at Camberwell College of Art and Design, but, as she explains when telling her own story, she didn’t follow the mood of that moment in the early nineties, when YBAs such as Hirst and Emin were generating all the critical excitement, controversy and headlines, with their conceptual new art.   

She chose her own alternative, figurative path by learning technical skills at City and Guilds Art School in London, and Portland Sculpture Trust.   She was determined to master patination an art form individual to every sculptor  

It was a move to the Scottish Borders with her family, in 2014 that allowed Frippy to realise her dream of expressing her own style and creating life size sculptures of horses.

Since moving to the Scottish Borders in 2014, she has spent years under the guidance of an inspiring mentor, ally and sculptor himself, Brian Caster, co-owner of Edinburgh’s leading foundry, Powderhall Bronze.

Her sculpture is distinguished by a quiet contemplative quality.   She places her thoroughbreds on heavy stone plinths in a tribute to their patience, endurance and beauty.   In a peaceful setting they maintain their own private pause, resting as in a paddock, or waiting in a yard, ‘before or after work.’ 

When encased and protected from the viewer in a Perspex box, such as the golden horses at Dalkeith Palace they acquire the stillness of an ‘untouchable monument’   

She is working on the art of patina to achieve just the sheen and colour ‘I hold in my mind.’  ‘Browns and reds are relatively easy to control, but the green is much more difficult.’  ‘I ‘m always battling against having a shine on the work. I want my sculptures to absorb the light rather than reflect it I have recently managed to achieve the verdigris effect, but it is a delicate balance of gentle heat and a very slow application of the chemicals.  

Brian Caster, co-owner of Powderhall Bronze Foundry, a sculptor himself, a master of patination, has been her mentor, ally and guide.    

He explains, ‘Patination is still very much part of the creative process and I have always said that the best way for artists to realise their vision at this stage is for them to do it themselves. Many sculptors don’t have the courage to get involved in this part of the process and are hesitant to learn new techniques, but Frippy has taken this creative journey in her stride. She is now fully set up with her own patination materials and chemicals in her studio and has become infatuated by the process. Frippy is now capable of producing some beautiful complex patinas and this has pushed her sculpture to further success. 

Frippy talks about two works in progress – ‘One is a King’s Troop horse, just released from the traces of his gun, the leathers of the tack resting over his back.  The second a hunter who has carried his master gloriously over the Scottish Moors for the past decade.  Every commission carries a quiet story, which I try to infuse into the bronze. ‘  

In a description of one portrait commission, she expresses her emotional connection to each subject.  I went back to photograph a life size horse that had been installed in winter when the landscape was bleak.  Seeing it again in summer, the atmosphere was transformed: it had become a tranquil haze, rich with colour.  I was privileged to create a sculpture true to my original vision for clients who had it installed in the most harmonious setting of their Portuguese garden.