Rufus is a portrait sculptor who primarily works with clay but is expanding his practice to work with marble. A mostly self-taught maker, Rufus works from life and creates sculptures of figures, nudes and busts that capture an individual’s character.
He studied at the Wimbledon College of Arts and has taken on many commissions and won awards including the Tiranti Best Portrait Prize for under 30s two years in a row, and the Morris Singer Foundry Prize.
QEST funding allowed him to realise his goal – using different materials to make large public sculpture works. Rufus travelled to Florence for one-on-one training with master sculptor Jason Arkles of Studio Della Statua. During his time there, he learned how to use chisels, ring marble, carve and polish and also how to use a pointing machine to translate mediums (plaster into marble).
In the future, Rufus hopes to create commissioned works of individuals, both living and dead, made in different mediums and scales. He would also like to pass on his skills to young people.
