P.Wharton  
Pewter

Bird nesting/_{Presented to ITIA School of Divinity University of St Andrews. 2018.}

Just a little insight into my process and how it relates to the world around me.

This simple little piece presented itself like an eagle eyed robin, hopping and bobbing. Eagerly spying the turn of each spade of freshly dug soil for food.

Whilst fitting oak flooring and skirting, the off cuts and botched up mitres began to mount up in the corner. And perched on the top was this simple little bird like form taking residence.

From this I modelled in wax, then cast it in pewter Bird Nesting as you see it here.

The presence of this simple little piece nestles firm in great resolve.

Almost totem like.

_14/09/2017

_{Weight in solid pewter 877 grams.}

_{W88mm/H59mm/D58mm}

Living Water/_{ITIA student award piece}

Living Water is a reworked (left) wing section from an earlier piece entitled Hope’s Last Call. 

Given the purpose of this piece I couldn’t help being very mindful of all the students in lockdown (2020) planning their future. And that of the student who will be receiving this piece. Who and where are they now during lockdown?

Similar to an earlier piece entitled Phoenix, this piece also took on that perspective. A perspective of getting back up stronger than you went down. And The Samaritan woman at the well is to thank for the title.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan_woman_at_the_well

Living Water 

Dr Gavin Hopps is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Theology, and Director of ITIA wrote,  ‘Its beauty -- in both iterations -- robs me of speech. As with so much of your work, its delicate and elegantly flowing forms have an understated suggestiveness that is all the more powerful for their referential reserve. I absolutely love it.’

_{Living water}

_{Medium/solid Sheffield pewter}

_{Approximately/W9cm/H19cm/D9cm}

_{Weight/1.194kg}

_{Living water/prototype}

_{Medium/white fibreglass paste}

_{Approximately/W9cm/H19cm/D18.5}

_{Weight/261 grams}

_{In private collection.}

Upon me. Upon you

_{Cast in 833 grams of solid Sheffield pewter. 
W 626 mm/H 855 mm /D 730 mm}

Cocoon/ITIA student award piece 2019

Congratulations to Garrett Ayers, an American student who was awarded the (first 2019) Wharton Prize. On this occasion it was  for best MLitt dissertation (on Thomas Pynchon and the Gospel of Mark) Sincere best wishes Garrett.  Be strong. Be kind. 

As with the piece Sapling, the presence of this piece is one of transition. An awakening. A rebirth. Pleasantly tactile.

_{755 grams of solid Sheffield pewter}

_{Presentation Piece. Dated 011118 ITIA}

_{Approximately W9.2cm/H5.8cm/D5.3cm}

_{Influences of Henry Moore}

Fig leaf

Alexxa Gotthardt, Staff Writer at Artsy writes, consider the fig leaf: a little piece of foliage that’s shielded the genitals of famous biblical figures and nude sculptures for centuries. It’s a plant that’s become synonymous with sin, sex, and censorship. And in large part, we have art history—and the artists determined to portray nudity even when it was considered taboo—to thank for that.

Take Michelangelo’s famous sculpture David (1501–04), a muscular, starkly naked depiction of its namesake biblical hero. The work scandalized the artist’s fellow Florentines and the Catholic clergy when unveiled in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria in 1504. Soon after, the figure’s sculpted phallus was girdled with a garland of bronze fig leaves by authorities.

60 years later, just months before Michelangelo’s death, the Catholic Church issued an edict demanding that “figures shall not be painted or adorned with a beauty exciting…lust.” The clergy began a crusade to camouflage the pensises and pubic hair visible in artworks across Italy. Their cover ups of choice? Loincloths, foliage, and—most often—fig leaves. It has become known as the “Fig Leaf Campaign,” one of history’s most significant acts of art censorship.

Cupid’s breastplate

Reverse side stamped reads: There are some we can only love in dreams. Love lays us bare.

Primarily sparked by the Tale of Cupid and Psyche.

Modelled from the left breastplate of Having faith.

_{Hand cast in Solid Sheffield pewter}

_{Limited to 1 in pewter}

_{Serial number 280820181705}

_{Weight approximately 492 grams}

_{W6.82cm/H17cm/Depth 4cm}

Having faith

Presence of their absence

Personally, this second series of works more so faithfully reflect Presence of their absence than the figure of the same name from The wheel of mourning/bereft Sculpture.

When my sister died, everyone kept saying it gets easier.

I’d think, what had getting easier got to do with anything?  And this statement (although well meaning) was worthless and meant nothing. Personally, if it had, it would have been tainted with a sense of betrayal. And my mother certainly felt that way.

It was only during such a dark moment I hugged my mother and expressed openly that it doesn’t get easier. We just learn to live around it.

In some way from then on, we permitted ourselves to openly live around our fondest memories. And sometimes it hurts more than others.

_{Presence of their absence/sketches. Limited edition of two pencil finished prints on treated paper. Unframed/W21cm/Height 29.5.  Framed/W38cm/H48cm.}

Oculus 2023/ITIA student award piece

This simple, unassuming little form was hand crafted from the remnants of votive and church candles using just a hot spoon, knife and lit candle. Then lost wax cast in solid Sheffield pewter.  

A furtherance of the artwork “Prayers” also by P Wharton. (Entitled “Prayers” by Canon Marcia Wall, Canon Pastor at Manchester Cathedral. 2022).

_{Cast in solid Sheffield pewter. Approximate Weight 1.688 kilograms. Width 13cm. Height 5cm. Depth 13cm. s/n ITIA  23 PW}