DAME ELISABETH FRINK, R.A. (1930-1993)

‘I've always worked in plaster, rather than in wax or clay - from the time I first went to Chelsea. It was Bernard Meadows, who was teaching there, who really got me into plaster. And by that time I already knew something about Giacometti, who used plaster, although of course he got a very different result from me. My birds and birdmen were built up on an armature, and then carved back, using chisels and choppers and all sorts of implements. In those days I also used to pick up bits of discarded plaster, and reuse them welded together with new material. That's why the effect is so splintery. The early imagery was a combination of the country, animals and the war’.

- E. Frink quoted in E. Lucie-Smith and E. Frink, Frink: A Portrait, London, 1994, pp. 105-108.