An evening with Tim Pomeroy …

Following his successful Bond Street show, Tim spoke at the Douglas Hotel on December 3rd about his work and what it means to him. A rapt audience listened to a remarkably open and self-aware outline of how he came to be a sculptor and everyone realised just what intense work – both physical and mental – is involved. The stories of hauling marble from Carrara quarries that are little changed from the time of Michelangelo were riveting, as were the sheer technical difficulties. Tim’s well-loved font in Glasgow’s Catholic Cathedral seems utterly tranquil, yet functions through hidden vents that depend in turn on narrow, precisely-engineered drainage channels. These had to be calculated with absolute precision, allowing no room at all for error.

The mammoth technical problems of handling massive blocks of stone would daunt most people, yet Tim’s work always seems imbued with reflective stillness. As slide followed slide, we watched, fascinated to have some insight into the constant demands made by the creative life. The stringent disciplines that it imposes are a world away from the all too popular concept of the artist as a Bohemian dabbler. Though working with massive blocks of stone that have lain under the earth’s skin for countless centuries, Tim’s skill is as detailed as that of a surgeon, and runs a similar risk that one slip of hand or mind might ruin everything. He lives and works dangerously, and yet – necessarily, of course – with extraordinary calm.