BRONZE FIGURES OF MYTHOLOGY

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32462, 24 November 1970, Page 11

BRONZE FIGURES OF MYTHOLOGY

New Zealand House was adorned recently with a mass of gleaming bronze figures made by the Palmerston North sculptor, Colin WebsterWatson. Mr Watson, who had been exhibiting at London’s Archer Gallery for the four weeks, flew back to his home in Rome last week. But he has left his work at the High Commission until he returns for his third one-man show in London at the Marjorie Parr Gallery in December, reports on N.Z.P.A. correspondent, Della Denman.

Working almost exclusively in bronze and only in earnest over the last three years, Mr Watson has reached a position of some prominence in the art world. Earlier this year he showed! his work in New York and next year he is to exhibit in Ottawa under the sponsorship of the Canadian Government. Selling mainly to Americans, Canadians, and South Africans, his pieces fetch an average £3OO. The piece de resistance of his recent show was “The Sphere,” depicting a man and woman back to back supporting a sphere of intermingled figures. He works largely on mythological themes—“The 1 : Creation." the “Death of Medusa,” and “Poseidon and! the Mermaid.” But he says he has a great affinity for animals—he owns I an otter, a parrot, two tor-1

toises, two cats, a leopard, two canaries, a Japanese sparrow, and a Bengal finch —and has done several sculptures of his pets. Carol Baker, the American actress, recently commissioned him to create four studies of lovers. The British Ambassador in Paris (Mr Christopher Soames) has one of his small bronzes, and other pieces have been bought by the American authors, Robert Ardrey and Morris West Mr Watson, now 44, left New Zealand in 1946 to take a theatrical review to Japan. He continued his theatre career in Australia, New Zealand, and England until' 1960, and then toured the ■Continent extensively, finish-j ing up in Rome “flat broke”! and getting a job teaching | 'English to the Italian Air' I Force. “I worked with the air! force for six years, and then ! started playing around with' clay, making ashtrays and' native masks. People became' very interested and I decided I to take up sculpting professionally.” , He claims to get his inspiration from the early Roman and Greek art in Rome I museums. He has his own studio in the old quarter of Rome and exhibits at the city’s Schneider Gallery. “I live in Rome because there are always blue skies there and the sun always ! shines,” he says. "I love New Zealand, but it’s impos- ! sible for an artist to survive