Over the summer the two sculptors spent three weeks working on seperate pieces, which are now on show at the company’s showroom.
Henk’s piece is based on the idea of gates. The Dutch sculptor spent time travelling around Morocco and was facinated by the towns and cities surrounded by the walls and gates, and the idea of seperation. The finished piece stands tall and is quite geometric, with straight clean lines and definite colours. Henk mainly works in limestone and marble and said that McKeon’s limestone was very good to work with as there are very few fossils. Henk was not always a sculptor.

“In a previous life I was a garden designer. I think in three dimensions and I love art”. He added that “stone is the most natural” medium to work in, “Michelangelo worked in stone”.

Although created from the same limestone, Manon’s piece is completely different to Henk’s. Manon took her inspiration from evolution and the sea, and completed her piece using a seashell as the starting point.

“I search in the stoneand i look for the right stone to work with and the stone looks for me too” she said. “Henk’s sculptures are quite mathematic but i have a different point of view” she said.

She views her seashell as ” a cadeau from the sea” and believes that the shell and sea life were the beginnings of human life. Niall Kavanagh is delighted with the finished sculptures which he believes was an interesting exercise.

“It promotes the stone and highlights the artistic side, especially if architects see and like it. The company has shown resolve over the past 60 years and has ability to change. You have to change with the times”, he says.

Words from the Leinster Express

Pictures of the sculptures can be seen here under Henk Korthuys and Manon Huguenin