Karen Newman ARBS
Member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and the Society of Portrait Sculptors
Born and working in London
While still at school I attended the Sir John Cass School of Art at weekends from the age of 14 -17. Painting with a knife appealed to me most, using increasingly more paint. I soon discovered the life-modelling class, which reinforced my instinct towards the sculpting medium. My first head won 1st prize in an exhibition of children's art in Hampstead. This head was then exhibited for a week at the Ben Uri Gallery, Dean Street London.
I then attended Chelsea School of Art for a Pre-Diploma year 1969-1970.
I went to the City and Guilds Art School in Kennington, London for two days a week. 1970-1972.
From the age of fifteen I had started to undertake commissioned portrait heads:
• Mr Jack Maxwell (future owner of the Halle Orchestra). 1966 Bronze.
• Mrs A Maiman 1967 Bronze.
• Mr Max Weldon. Circa 1967. Bronze head and another in 1977. Bronze.
• 2 children's heads Bronze circa 1970.
• Mr. Eric Wilkins 1971 (Chairman of the Barbican Arts Centre committee) A one and a half times life-size portrait, in bronze. Shown at the Guildhall for some years.
• WH Auden. Purchased by the Barbican Arts Centre Bronze 1977.
• Roger Daltrey (lead singer of 'The Who') Bronze. Shown at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)1978.
• Sir Maxwell Joseph. Circa 1982. Bronze
(Then Chairman of Grand Metropolitan Hotels)
From 1980 Madame Tussauds, the wax museum in London, invited me to work as a freelance sculptor. I was there for 21 years. Among my distinguished sitters were:
• HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
• The late Prime Minister Harold Wilson
• The Duchess of York
• Stevie Wonder
• Eric Clapton
• Sir Bob Geldof
• Prime Minister Tony Blair
• The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin
• Jeroen Krabbe, Dutch film actor and painter
• Chancellor Helmut Kohl
• Jean-Paul Gaultier
• Yoko Ono
• Charles Dance
• Hugh Grant
• Billy Connolly
• Rod Stewart
• Neil Kinnock, leader of the Labour Party
My life-size figure of Charlie Chaplin ( for Tussauds ) was shown at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in the early 1980's.
Current & Past Works
2016-2017 Currently engaged in the production of one of my works for a major museum which will be seen in the Autumn of 2017.
2016 – A continuation of the resin of the Noor Inayat Khan portrait.
2014 – Commission to produce portrait head of the now late Dr Samir Eid, an Industrialist, initially for their company headquarters but later for his family. There are 4 bronze casts over a two year period.
May 2013 – A resin cast of the Noor portrait at the SPS Annual Show and was awarded a Special Commendation for the portrait.
November 2012 – Bronze portrait bust of Noor Inayat Khan, George Cross, Croix de Guerre and MBE, for the Memorial to her, in Gordon Square. Unveiled by HRH Princess Anne and attended by some of Noor's family, WWII Veterans, press and TV from around the World.
May 2012 – I restored the Henry Moore wax portrait figure, alongside a hair and colouring artist, originally made for Madame Tussauds in 1995. This figure was shown at The Holburne Museum in Bath, UK, as part of their exhibition 'Presence. The Art of Portrait Sculpture.', in September 2012. Both the Henry Moore and the David Hockney figures were restored again in 2017, soley by Madame Tussauds.
2011 – Commissioned by The Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust to produce a portrait bust of Noor Inayat Khan, awarded the George Cross, Croix de Guerre and MBE. Noor was a World War II SOE wireless operator parachuted into occupied Paris in 1944. She was imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo and revealed nothing. The bust is sited in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, Central London.
2010 – Commissioned by the Vincent Square Residents' Association to create a terracotta half relief oval plaque of William Vincent, Headmaster of Westminster School and later Dean of Westminster Abbey. It was unveiled by the current Dean of Westminster Abbey, the current Headmaster of Westminster School and the Deputy Mayor of Westminster.
2008 – Completion of the Charles Dance portrait, having worked on this for several years intermittently. I worked from life and a series of photos. Although not a commission, Charles patiently and generously gave me quite a few sittings.
2008 – Violette Szabo installed on The Albert Embankment of the River Thames, outside Lambeth Palace facing The Houses of Parliament.
2008 – Commissioned to produce two bronze casts of the Nancy Wake maquette. The first has been sited at The Stafford hotel St. James's Place London.
2008 – Showed the bronze resin cast of Charles Dance at SPS Cork Street London.
2007 – Bronze Resin cast of Violette Szabo shown at The Society of Portrait Sculptors annual exhibition in Cork Street, London, that was awarded a special commendation. The Bronze Resin original of the Nancy Wake maquette was shown there the same year.
2006-2007 – Produced maquette of Australian, SOE Resistance fighter, Nancy Wake. Shown Cork Street SPS 2007.
2nd-14th May 2005 – Small Female Torso at the Society of Portrait Sculptors annual show Cork Street, London.
2004 – Wax portrait figures of Henry Moore and David Hockney, made for Madame Tussauds, in more recent years requested by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling to be on extended or permanent loan to the Royal College of Art. The finished Henry Moore clay featured on the front cover of the Royal British Society of Sculptors magazine 1994.
2004 – Commission to produce portrait bronze of 11yr old Harry Mathews. Shown at Cork Street, Society of Portrait Sculptors annual show 2006.
2003 – Commission to produce a one and a half times life-size portrait bust of World War ll heroine Violette Szabo.
2003 – Commission to produce a portrait bronze of 18yr old Becky, sister of Emilie. Bronze.
2002 – Mother and baby bronze Dolphins commissioned for a house in Brussels. They are mounted on Belgian fossil stone, suggesting the seabed. (Edition of 9)
2002 – Bronze portraits of a child 'Vivien' (edition of 5) and a young woman 'Emilie'. Both were shown at Cork Street, May 2003.
May 2002 – A small nude study shown at the Society of Portrait Sculptors, Cork Street.
2002 – Marlin Fitzwater, the Formerly Press Secretary to Presidents Reagan and George Bush Senior. Bronze portrait bust of him for a school in New Hampshire.
2002 – Private commission for an Art Deco style figure of a diver. Edition of 9 casts. Bronze.
September 2001 and April 2002 – Invited to hold two, three day workshops in portrait sculpture at The Royal British Society of Sculptors for adult students.
Autumn of 2000 – I made the portrait of Mr Eric Hinds in bronze. It was selected for the SPS show in Cork Street the following May.
January 2000 – Invited to conduct a masterclass in portrait sculpture at the Hong Kong School for the Performing Arts.
1997 – A portrait bust in bronze of the now late Mr Phillip Joseph (founder of 'Books Etc.'). It was shown, to particular acclaim, at the Society of Portrait Sculptors, Cork Street, the following year.
For more information please contact me on:
sculpture@karen-newman.com
Copyright Karen Newman 2017