The Forge
by Niall Bruton
Bronze relief panel integrated into a stone fixture detailing the workings of a blacksmith at his forge. This area was the noted in history for the presence of four master blacksmiths.
The Forge, 2002
Per Cent for Art Scheme arising from the construction of a new housing scheme at Ballintra, Co. Donegal. The Bronze relief panel is 1 metre by .75 metres in size.
Biography of artist
Niall Bruton
Born and reared in Dublin, Niall Bruton graduated from the National College of Art and Design in 1986. While there he concentrated on the casting and fabrication of metals in a sculptural context and developed these techniques further in studio experience in Florence, Italy and Valencia, Spain.
Now long established in Donegal with a workshop and studio in Donegal Craft Village, Niall work is primarily commission based rather than exhibition orientated, with a high emphasis on craft, technique and quality of build. He has developed a wide range of jewellery designs in precious metals – micro sculpture at an affordable level, as he likes to see it.
For the most part, the jewellery is abstract in form and narrative in undertones. This is a contrast to some of his larger public sculpture commissions, which have for the most part been figurative in form such as the life size Famine Commemoration Sculpture in bronze at the Quayside in Sligo or the larger 3-meter form in Bronze ‘Waiting on Shore’ at Rosses Point, to commemorate local sea tragedies.
Niall has also undertaken commissions of a semi functional nature with sculptural works such as the stainless steel & bronze entrance gates to Sligo Famine Graveyard and Irvinestown Graveyard whose tragic themes are rendered through their silhouetted liner motifs. Bruton can be contacted at his studio at the Craft Village, Donegal Town, Co. Donegal
