June 2005, Veronica O'Farrell Cervera

This month we feature an artist who has many talents. She has worked with oils, pastels and tapestries but now concentrates on sculptures and glazed stonework. Veronica has a Spanish mother and an Irish father and on her own admission, 'a huge sense of humour' that is expressed in some of her work. Anybody that appreciates art should be thankful that Veronica did not pursue her first love, which is archaeology, particularly relating to South America. Many of her sculptures of figures in stone have South American Indian features, as she cheerfully says, 'I have a fetish for them'.

An Art School in Ireland taught Veronica the basics of many art forms, including sculpture, but it was not until she moved to Spain at the age of 21 that she started producing the lively, amusing, expressionist figures that now adorn her home at Sotogrande. It was even more recently that she started working with glass and glazed clay.

Her work has appeared in exhibitions at Madrid, San Pedro, Marbella and Dublin and most of her commercial work now comes from commissions.

Whilst in Spain Veronica has passed her knowledge on to many students through teaching at International Schools where she taught to 'O' level, and teaching adults from her workshop in Sotogrande. At her sessions students choose their own subjects, Veronica then encourages the development of those first ideas. In the process she often learns from the student as they try different techniques. This is particularly true of the work in clay and glass where there are many ways of working, each producing a different effect.

Whilst at her workshop Veronica showed me the essentials of sculpting using this medium. The work is started with a smooth slab of clay into which a design is inscribed. Depressions are then made in the clay to various depths depending on the effect required. The depressions are filled with coloured glass ground to fine gravel. Veronica sometimes enlists the help of road workers here, appearing in front of road rollers with glass wrapped in towels.