michie herbert mrss

We have known Michie for the past 12 months and over that time have spent a number of very enjoyable days in her wonderful Oxfordshire home discussing art. It was over one lunch , on one such occasion , that we established that a few years ago we lived about 2 miles away from each other in rural Hertfordshire - this art world certainly is a small one at times .

Michie is an established sculptor a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, who carves her work in wood and stone and also models original, mainly abstract, pieces for casting in bronze or resin. Her sculptures are designed for interior settings or for landscapes and gardens. A large part of her work is created in response to commissions. Her inspiration is deeply rooted in her childhood and being surrounded by creatives.

Michie Herbert was born in New York to an English-born novelist father and a French mother. When the family moved to Europe, Michie’s early years were divided between summers on Ile de Re , an island off the west coast of France - where her delight in stone was fired by her mother’s habit of collecting pebbles on the beaches - and England where she stayed with relatives (also writers) in St. Ives, Cornwall. It was here that her love of sculpture was born and she remembers thinking that everyone grew up and became a sculptor. She was often in the studios of their friend Barbara Hepworth, who would correspond with her at school giving advice on form and structure for her art classes - not a bad teacher we think !

In the 1960’s she studied painting at St Martin’s College of Art in London. Later she studied sculpture at the John Cass School at Whitechapel, London.Whether abstract or figurative the concept of separate forms that have grown together, moulding themselves softly to each other’s shapes, is a recurring theme in her work. These are designed to convey a feeling of gentleness, quietness and togetherness