The Compton Triptych comprises three terracotta portrait heads, plinthed together, which celebrates the parish of Compton, Guildford, and the diverse figures who have contributed to this Surrey community. Using local clay from the foundations of the pottery of Mary Wondrausch this was unveiled in November 2011 at The Human Clay exhibition, Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey [1] [2] [3] after sittings with sculptor Jon Edgar in 2010 and 2011. The heads include G. F. Watts expert Richard Jefferies, artist/historian Mary Wondrausch and community stalwart Jane Turner, selected by the artist after a local public appeal for suggestions for the third element of the Triptych. A triptych combines three formal elements more commonly used in painting, and this sculptural grouping was first used by Jon Edgar for the Environment Triptych of 2008, after the combination of three heads seemed to create a composition which added another dimension to the work.
Surrey is a ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Greater London to the north east, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the west. The largest settlement is Woking.
Guildford is a town in west Surrey, England, around 27 mi (43 km) southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around 143,929 inhabitants in mid-2019 est.. The name "Guildford" is thought to derive from a crossing of the River Wey, a tributary of the River Thames that flows through the town centre.
Cranleigh is a village and civil parish, about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Guildford in Surrey, England. It lies on a minor road east of the A281, which links Guildford with Horsham. It is in the north-west corner of the Weald, a large remnant forest, the main local remnant being Winterfold Forest directly north-west on the northern Greensand Ridge.
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around 30 miles (49 km) southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers 3.74 sq mi (9.7 km2) and includes the settlements of Farncombe, Binscombe and Aaron's Hill. Much of the area lies on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group and Bargate stone was quarried locally until the Second World War.
The Hog's Back is a hilly ridge, part of the North Downs in Surrey, England. It runs between Farnham in the west and Guildford in the east.
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral in Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow donated the first 6 acres (2.4 ha) of land on which the cathedral stands, with Viscount Bennett, a former Prime Minister of Canada, purchasing the remaining land and donating it to the cathedral in 1947. Designed by Edward Maufe and built between 1936 and 1961, it is the seat of the Bishop of Guildford.
Mary Seton Fraser Tytler (1849–1938) was a symbolist craftswoman, designer and social reformer.
Compton is a village and civil parish in the Guildford district of Surrey, England. It is between Godalming and Guildford. It has a medieval church and a close connection to fine art and pottery, being the later life home of artist George Frederic Watts. The parish has considerable woodland and agricultural land, and the undeveloped portions are in the Metropolitan Green Belt. The village is traversed by the North Downs Way and has a large western conservation area. Central to the village are the Watts Gallery, the cemetery chapel commissioned by his wife for him, two inns and the parish church.
Holmbury St Mary is a village in Surrey, England centered on shallow upper slopes of the Greensand Ridge. Its developed area is a nucleated village, 4.5 miles (7 km) southwest of Dorking and 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Guildford. Most of the village is in the borough of Guildford, within Shere civil parish. Much of the east side of the village street is in the district of Mole Valley, within Abinger civil parish.
Watts Gallery – Artists' Village is an art gallery in the village of Compton, near Guildford in Surrey. It is dedicated to the work of the Victorian-era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts.
Jon Edgar is a British sculptor of the Frink School. Improvisation is an important part of his reductive working process and developed from the additive working process of Alan Thornhill. Final works are often autobiographical, perhaps referencing anxieties or pre-occupations at the time. His body of work includes many clay portrait sketches of eminent sitters.
The Watts Cemetery Chapel or Watts Mortuary Chapel is a chapel in a Modern Style version of Celtic Revival in the village cemetery of Compton in Surrey. While the overall architectural structure is loosely Romanesque Revival, in the absence of any appropriate Celtic models, the lavish decoration in terracotta relief carving and paintings is Celtic Revival, here seen on an unusually large scale. According to the local council, it is "a unique concoction of art nouveau, Celtic, Romanesque and Egyptian influence with Mary's own original style".
Mary Wondrausch was an English artist, potter, historian and writer, born in Chelsea. She trained as a potter at Farnham School of Art, latterly West Surrey College of Art and Design.
Richard Jefferies was curator of the Watts Gallery for two decades from 1985–2006. His role led to his becoming an acknowledged expert on the Victorian painter and sculptor G. F. Watts. Jefferies's uncle had been chief assistant to Mary Seton Watts in the last ten years of her life, and Richard was born on a visit by his parents to his aunt and uncle at Compton in 1945. He started as Custodian at the Gallery on 1 February 1969 after an earlier discussion with the then Curator, Wilfrid Blunt. He provides the foreword for Hutchings's book on Watts's sculpture.
The Lewis Elton Gallery was an art gallery at the University of Surrey's Guildford campus, which hosted exhibitions, lectures and events including sculpture, paintings and photographs. The Gallery was also responsible for the maintaining the University Art Collection and a range of special collections including the Lewis and Mary Elton Art Collection and E.H. Shepard archive.
Patricia Maureen Grayburn, MBE, DL has a long involvement with the arts in Surrey after moving to become Arts Administrator at University of Surrey in 1983.
The Environment Triptych, by sculptor Jon Edgar, is a group of three portrait heads of environmental thinkers of the day. First assembled in 2008, it is composed of the terracotta heads of James Lovelock, proposer of the Gaia hypothesis, moral philosopher Mary Midgley, and writer Richard Mabey. Edgar worked with the three in either Cornwall, Newcastle upon Tyne or Norfolk during visits in 2006 and 2007.
Charles Edgar Buckeridge was an English church decorative artist and the son of Charles Buckeridge, a Gothic Revival architect.
The Environment Series Heads developed from the Environment Triptych portrait sculptures by Jon Edgar in 2006. His ongoing series of terracotta clay portraits celebrates those contributing to a sustainable future on Earth. The sculptor observes the sitter on a rotating chair, working over seven or eight hours building up the head on a wooden peg using small pieces of clay. One sitter accounted "It is the most intense and prolonged physical scrutiny I have ever had from a friend. For hours on end."