Celebrating sculptor’s speciality wood work

HE was one of Australia’s leading sculptors and now a book about Peter Taylor brings together his unique body of work using specialty Tasmanian timbers.

His daughter Pam Taylor and her son Peter Armstrong co-wrote the book to show the depth and breadth of his work in Peter Taylor: Australian Sculptor, printed by Forty South Publishing.

His coat of arms grace not only many Tasmanian buildings but also watch over the Senate Chamber in Canberra.

Taylor, who died in 2019 aged 92, said the commission to design and sculpt the Senate coat of arms was “very significant in my career and it opened up many doors for future work”.

Ms Taylor said her father, who also was an art teacher and lecturer, mentored many art students and encouraged them in establishing their own art practices. She said even though many public institutions and individuals owned single works, they had little idea of how much else existed.

“This book aims to bring Peter’s remarkable body of work to the public for the first time,” Ms Taylor said.

“It highlights the different themes and phases of his work – figures, flight, wildlife, coats of arms, dysfunctional furniture, architectural sculpture and paintings.”

Ms Taylor has fond memories of her father who resigned from teaching in 1977 to work as a full-time sculptor for the next three decades, and as a painter for the following decade.

“He was always working in his studio to the sound of loud classical music and with the strong smell of Huon pine shavings on the studio floor.

“A person completely at one with the environment, the Huon River, its wildlife, drawing inspiration from it and watching the river for floating Huon pine logs to be pulled ashore in his dinghy and then transformed into sculptures.

“A man of many passions and interests- all sports especially Aussie rules, early Tasmanian history, classical art, classical music, birds, animals, and the Tasmanian bush.

“Few sculptors in Australia could have established a decades’ long set up of living on commissions, exhibitions and with assistants from a base in the Huon valley.”

Taylor’s last sculpture in 2003 was a zig zag metal and wood “Desk” with what he described as the most beautiful piece of Huon pine he had ever seen.

He painted until his death in 2019 and Ms Taylor said he introduced unique sculptures made of Tasmanian timbers, such as Huon pine, to the wider Australian public.

“His sculptures highlighted the contrast between roughhewn timber with beautifully smooth or painted timber.