AN acclaimed sculptor whose work is on show across the world credits his North-East roots for influencing his art.
Nick Bibby was born and grew up in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and, although he now lives in Devon, retains strong family ties to the town.
Both of his parents worked at King James 1st School. His father, Alan Bibby, was head of woodwork and technical drawing, while his mother, Margaret Bibby, was deputy head of the upper school and taught history there.
His sister, Helen, still lives in Bishop Auckland, only a couple of streets away from the home the family grew up in.
“Both my parents were brilliant, inspiring, teachers,” says Nick.
“Though I was never taught by them myself, for obvious reasons, we had a constant stream of past pupils dropping in to see them and to this day, I still get messages from people that were taught by them, telling me how great they were and how much they miss them.”
The young Nick developed an early interest in art and nature, using technical drawing papers his father brought home from school and Opal Fruits as sculpting material.
Another early influence was the work of fantasy novelist JRR Tolkein.
“I fell in love with Lord of the Rings when I was 13,” says Nick.
“I became completely obsessed with it and then, aged about 15, I discovered I could buy miniature figurines.
“They weren’t quite what I wanted, so I started carving bits off and adding bits. They became more and more extreme, until I thought I’d try to make some from scratch.”
Academically bright, Nick was steered away from the more artistic subjects at King James.
“I was encouraged at school by my teachers, but not by the system,” says Nick, who was made to drop art and woodwork.
Undeterred, he continued with art as an extracurricular activity and he has nothing but praise for the King James teachers.
“Several of my teachers there were a huge influence on me and encouraged me in my creative,artistic and natural history aspirations,” he says.
They included biology teacher Kenneth Bowes – who started at King James the same year Nick did – Mr Welch, who taught him woodwork in the only year that he was allowed and Mrs Armitage.
He also credits art teacher Mr Raymond, who he says “gave me free rein to make whatever caught my interest,” and geography teacher Mr Reed “who made me laugh and gave me the confidence to follow my dreams”.
After leaving school he went to Wolverhampton Art College, where he lasted just one term. It taught him some valuable life skills – “I became quite good at pool, quite good at darts and very good at sinking a pint very quickly,” he says – but didn’t teach the kind of art he was interested in.
Aged 18 he started work for Asgard Miniatures, which produced fantasy figures, becoming a director of the company just a year later.
His executive career was short lived, however, as he soon became a freelance, making miniature figures for the likes of Citadel and Games Workshop.
He also had a spell working for TV commercials, making figures like the Access card ‘Fat Wallet’ character and acrylic Cornettos - real ice cream would have melted on set.
After marrying his wife Clare in 1989, the couple moved to St Albans, where Nick continued with his freelance sculpting and TV work, until he started making his first bronzes.
His first effort, a kingfisher, was accepted into an exhibition by a gallery in Suffolk – which continued to support him for many years – and he has continued sculpting bronzes ever since.
Highly successful, he has had commissions from all over the world.
His favourite ever commission – “a joy to sculpt” – is the figure of ‘Indomitable’ a 10ft 6ins Kodiak Brown Bear, commissioned by Brown University, Rhode Island, to stand outside their brand new, state of the art, Nelson Fitness Centre. The finished bronze weighed a mighty 2.3 tonnes.
Other favourites include a life size Emperor Penguin, commissioned by The Wilson Museum in Cheltenham.
It celebrates their connection with the artist, physician, explorer and naturalist Edward Wilson, who accompanied Scott and Shackleton on their trips to the Antarctic and died with Scott on his last, ill fated, attempt to be first man to reach the South Pole.
The bronze stands in the foyer of the Wilson and is one of the first things that visitors see.
And he is also proud of ‘Dagu’ the life-size Sumatran Orangutan, the alpha male orangutan at Jersey Zoo.
“Orangutans are simply magical,” says Nick.
“I felt such a connection with this beautiful soul. So gentle, but so powerful. Unbelievably strong. He posed so beautifully for me - a giant, contemplative, ginger, Buddha.”
Other sculptures, most of which are drawn from nature, have been directly influenced by his childhood in Bishop Auckland.
“I always loved nature and that came from my mother,.” says Nick.
“She loved natural history and encouraged my interest in it. She was artistic herself and always supported and encouraged my love of both art and nature. We were very close.”
He adds: “I spent as much time as I could on the slopes of the Pennines, getting inspired just watching the birdlife
“It seemed natural to sculpt what I loved. I can sculpt people, but I don’t enjoy it as much because animals don’t have an ego - you sculpt it as you see it and they’re not going to say ‘this isn’t right, or I don’t carry that much weight round my middle’, or whatever."
Two of his pieces were directly inspired by one of his favourite books, growing up, about local myths and legends.
”My favourite two were the legend of the Lambton Worm, and – of course, being a Bishop lad – the tale of Pollard and the Boar,” he says.
“Both tales have stayed with me and eventually inspired my sculptures, of the Midgard Serpent and the European Wild Boar.
“The Norse sagas were a clear influence on the Lambton Wyrm legend, so I enjoyed combining the two and letting my creativity run riot around the brief descriptions of both in saga and legend.
“And for the European Wild Boar, I wanted to sculpt a really big, impressive boar, worthy of those childhood images of that massive boar, terrorising the folk of Bishop Auckland all those years ago.”
Other sculptures influenced by his Bishop Auckland childhood include a Herdwick ram – a detailed portrait of a specific champion Herdwick, from the Westmorland county show.
“My family roots are both sides of the Pennines and I spent a lot of time on the Lake District fells, growing up. For me, Herdwicks epitomise that hard, northern, hill country that I still love,” says Nick.
“No matter how steep the slope, how tough the conditions, you will see Herdwicks up there, fleeces matted with ice, still happily feeding on whatever meagre grazing they can find.
“My favourite breed of sheep, I love to see them and had to include one in my ‘British Champion Animals’ series of portraits.”
Days on the Pennine moors helped inspire his sculpture of a red grouse and wanderings around the northern edges of the Cheviot hills inspired his ptarmigan sculpture.
He is particularly proud of his most recent sculpture, a peregrine titled ‘Lightning Bolt’.
Nick suffers with a recurring back problem, which means he is unable to sit, or stand, for more than a few minutes at a time without debilitating pain. As a result he was only able to work on the peregrine for a couple of hours each day.
Despite that, he says he feels it is “one of my best and most striking pieces to date”.
Now aged 60, Nick lives just south of Dartmoor, in Devon, which his wife, Clare, who he describes as “my rock”.
The couple have one daughter, Emily, who is now 25. She is a qualified homeopath with degrees in philosophy and homeopathy and a homeopathic practice in Totnes, Devon.
Presently on the waiting list for a third back operation, as soon as the NHS returns to any sort of normality, he continues to work whenever physically able and is currently working on a substantial commission of smaller pieces for a Middle Eastern client, plus commissions for clients in the UK, US, China and Australia.
* For more information on Nick and his work, visit his website: https://www.nickbibby.com/
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