Page 183 - Bulletin 8 2004
P. 183
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The drawn conception of the piece and the finished product are depicted in Figures 4.17
and 4.18. This piece was accepted for the 1930 Autumn Exhibition at the Walker Gallery in
Liverpool, but was either damaged or lost in transit and so has never been seen. Nor did it
bring her the academic honours for which she had intended submitting it.
With all of this activity her studio started to fill with sculptures (Fig. 4.19).
Sculpture for Homes and Gardens
During the 1930s Wynne produced a variety of sculptures in cement for the home and
garden. These included animal figures, mainly birds and elephants for use inside the home
as bookends (elephants inspired by those she had observed in Sri Lanka, birds named Uncle
George), standing lamps (a kneeling figure apparently inspired by Egyptian myth), and
doorstops (Bass, 1938, a cat modelled on a bronze cat from Pharaonic Egypt that is held at
the British Museum). (Figs. 4.20 – 4.22).
Other figures were for the garden, one of the first being a wall bird-bath that was exhibited
in 1932. There were other bird baths (Rima, and shell fountain, 1936) (Figs. 4.23 – 4.25);
figures like the Goosegirl 1936, (4.26), and the Trekkerskind 1938, (Fig.4.27); and animals,
particularly rabbits, and a goblin. (Figs. 4.28 & 4.29). Many of these used to stand in the
large bird cages at the old Groote Schuur zoo. There were also free-standing wall panels in
coloured cement for the garden, (Figs. 4.30 & 4.31). All of these were for commercial
production (Fig. 4.32) and the shell fountain, in particular, can still be bought from the
Cape Vent and Slab Co., Maitland.
Most of the larger items in this set were produced on the premises of the Salt River Cement
Works owned by Mr. Lewis Sagorski.
Flowing from this interest in gardens and outdoor sculpture she entered a competition in