Work of the Week | Nigel Ross, Merula, 2023

Nigel Ross
Merula
2023
Charred sycamore
90 x 225 x 45 cm
35 ⅖ x 88 ½ x 18 in.

The calligraphic design of Nigel Ross' Merula creates a contemporary silhouette in the landscape. The work's title, taken from the Latin name for blackbirds, is inspired by the flock that watch him at work in his studio and workshop in Perthshire, Scotland.

Nigel Ross carves abstract sculpture and seating from entire trunks of fallen wood, creating continuous shapes and forms – the rhythms and energy of nature being a constant inspiration of his. His practice emerged from a career working in forestry on the Isle of Arran, after a childhood spent in rural Hertfordshire surrounded by woodland. By the mid-nineties, Ross was working full time as a sculptor and maker.

Nigel Ross sculpts benches that are beautiful and inviting, combining form and function to create pieces of art that can be lived with. Ross first exhibited with New Art Centre in 2004 and again in 2007. Since then, his sculptural seating has become a permanent feature within the Sculpture Park. His works have been placed in private and public collections in the UK and the United States, including Chatsworth House; Canary Wharf, London, the Woodland Trust, Scotland; Epsom Common and at the start of the Weymouth Sculpture Trail. Last year, Ross was privately commissioned to produce a bench to be sited in the University of Aberdeen’s Cruickshank Botanic Garden. The unusual curved limb from a Clunie Oak has led visitors to adopt the name 'Viking Ship' for the piece.

Ross often works to commission, fabricating bespoke sculpture, seating and architectural interventions for both public and private spaces internationally. To find out more about Nigel Ross, please enquire below: