Palazzo Comunale di Fiesole, in Florence, Italy 11-17th September - Paddy Campbell’s sculptures will be exhibited in t... <read more>   Paddy Campbell featured on 'Nationwide' - RTE Television recently aired an episode of their ... <read more>   'Metamorphosis' - an article from the Irish Independent - The Irish Independent Weekend magazine recently pr... <read more>   An Introduction   One of my earliest memories as a toddler was being sent with my older sisters to the Loreto Convent in North Great George's Street, Dublin, and wanting to play with the "márla" or modeling clay, which was rolled in little balls on every desk only to be accessed during "an sos" (play-time). So I contented myself with doodling the time away and settled for a two-dimensional vision of life. As the years rolled on my artistic yearnings were parked while I became absorbed in building a business and having a family. When art elbowed its way back into my life, it was through the medium of drawing and painting, which I could pick up and put down, like a pencil in childhood. I resumed courses at the National College of Art (which I had abandoned after leaving school) during the Nineties, but these served mainly to whet my appetite, and so I found myself in Florence one hot summer in 1996, learning to draw and paint in the meticulous manner of the Renaissance artists. It was then and there that I determined to "stretch the umbilical cord" tying me to my business. While others might choose golf or gardening, I wanted to spend my autumn years painting. So, every summer, I returned to Florence to learn more. I found a studio space in Dublin also and tasted life as an artist. In 2002, I decided to take a course in sculpture in Florence in order to improve my painting. A veil was lifted and I felt the poetry of form flowing from my fingers. Perhaps this is my natural calling and, although I love to paint, I spend most of my time now with my little balls of "márla", making what I see and feel. I hit on an ideal studio space at Via Luna, Florence, in 2005, and began to make many of my sculptures there, often commuting back to Ireland to have work finalised and cast. Paddy Campbell