Page 183 - Bulletin 8 2004
P. 183

180




                  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
   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188