Desire

That's the name of the sculpture!  About 15 years ago we bought a 30cm tall version of this sculpture in solid bronze.  It had been made by a young Hungarian sculptress who had just graduated from the Heatherley School of Fine Art in West London where I used to go to learn to paint before I found photography.

We had been trying but failing to find a large garden sculpture, and decided to ask her to scale it up for us and have it cast (in hollow bronze).  It was an exciting thing to do.  It was her first "commission" and she had never made anything bigger than 30cm before (Desire is about 2m).  She involved us in the whole process. The original design had to be tweaked to work at large scale and to be able to be cast and to be robust.  It was made in pieces that were welded together by artisans who specialise in such things - who knew!  Then it was patinated - drenched in chemicals and fired with a blow torch.  You never quite know what the result will look like.  We were thrilled with it.  Then of course we moved house, and, yes, there are removal companies who specialise in moving extremely large and heavy works of art.

Desire appears in the background of the photos of my favourite tree and will look better when the leaves open, any day now...