Newton’s Law

Debbie Burt meets up with equine and life-size sculptor William Newton

THE SOMERSET-BASED SCULPTOR William Newton has produced trophies for the UK’s most famous races, the Grand National and the Derby and more recently, life-sized bronzes of the two men often associated with them, Dick Francis and the late Lester Piggott.

For Newton, briefly a jockey himself, notably riding a winner at the first attempt at his local course at Wincanton, it was always sculpture that fired his imagination.

He enlisted for pottery class at school, but soon realised that he had little interest in producing pots, preferring modelling with clay and making animals.

When the father of one of the pupils, the renowned sculptor John Robinson, visited the class, it was a life-changing moment.

“I instantly connected with him,” recalls Newton. “We were making figures, mine didn’t have any hair and he just slapped a bit of clay on the side of the head and sort of used his thumb to make some ringlets.

“At that moment I was absolutely mesmerised. I went from watching and running my own thumb through what he had done, to trying to replicate it on the other side of the head. He came over and said that’s fantastic, he really gave me a boost.”

Robinson lived within cycling distance and soon Newton was a regular visitor to his studio, using his mentor’s smaller studies as the inspiration for his own work.

As his skills progressed Newton says: “You couldn’t keep me out of the art room at school. As long as I was creating something, whether it was drawing, painting or sculpting, I was happy.

“I didn’t excel academically I just did the bare minimum in my other subjects, enough to keep me out of trouble. I left school at 16 as soon as I had the opportunity to do an art foundation course.”

Through “a fantastic two years” at art college, racehorses were his hobby. In the mornings he would ride out for Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Peter Dufosee and “just about” be finished in time to get to college. Toby Balding suggested Newton go to Ireland to gain more experience as an amateur, which he did, influenced by the success of Jonjo O’Neill and his contemporaries.

“All the Irish jockeys that came to Britain, I thought they had a lovely fluidity about them in the way that they rode.”

Even then he realises, “I was really thinking like a sculptor.”

Becoming a full-time sculptor

After breaking his arm, Newton returned to the UK and, though he was still riding a few winners, sculpting was taking up more and more of his time and he soon retired from race riding. By this stage he’d moved to live in Hungerford and been introduced to Philip Blacker, another jockey-turned-sculptor with whom he formed an instant rapport.

“Philip said come over anytime, so I would work in his studio instead of my kitchen. Sometimes under his supervision I’d assist him with some of his bigger sculptures such as Red Rum. It’s amazing how much work is involved in making a life-size sculpture, whether it be human or equine.

“When you finish, you look at it and ask yourself, ‘Why did it take so long?’ It looks so easy once it’s done, but it’s quite a battle, really. It doesn’t stop in the studio, of course, I’m very involved at the foundry, more now than ever.

“The first time I had a sculpture cast, my initial reaction was, ‘It’s in bronze!’ and it was incredibly exciting. The next was ‘My god what have they done to it!’ The more I looked, the worse it got, so that was a good lesson; there were an awful lot of things that can go wrong between making the sculpture and getting it back from the foundry.

“I realised that to get the results I wanted, it was up to me to play a bigger part in the casting and finishing process.

For many years now, I’ve pretty much done everything myself. I’ve always used a professional mould maker for the mould though. I’ve tried doing it, but that’s a real craft in itself and it’s also actually very dull, for me anyway!” he says laughing.

After the mould has been made, Newton takes a wax positive from it and then works on the wax so that it is, essentially, an identical copy of the original clay model.

He then hands it over to the foundry staff for casting by the “lost wax” process in which the wax is covered in ceramic glaze, placed in a furnace to fire the ceramic and burn off the wax, then the newly formed ceramic mould is filled with molten bronze.

Once cool, Newton is back in action, quite literally breaking the mould to reveal the bronze sculpture, which then has to have the “runners and risers” (additional wax rods attached to the sculpture to aid the flow of the bronze) removed.

This all leaves its mark on the previously perfect surface, returning it to that state is a great skill, known as “chasing and finishing”.

Newton firmly asserts that sculptures produced in this way are one-offs, as every wax is slightly different, with minor variations in how they are worked up and finished. This most obviously extends to the “patination” or colouring process, which he also does himself.

“I know roughly how I’m going to do it, but editions are not going to be exactly identical, one may be lighter or darker or a bit greener or more orange depending on what I’m trying to achieve, and I just go with it. A good patination can really enhance a bronze,” he asserts.

“When you buy a William Newton bronze, it really is my work, there’s been very little input from anyone else, apart from the casting process. It hasn’t always been like that though, Eddie McDougall used to do all my chasing. We worked so closely together, he knew exactly how I wanted it and for me he was absolutely brilliant as a chaser and finisher of bronzes. He was also a great patinator; he taught me an immense amount.”

When approaching a commission his ideal is to work from life. Recalling his study of Gold Cup winner Native River he says: “Because he was turned out for the summer, I did virtually all of the sculpture working alongside the horse in the field.

“I knew that he was going to change shape somewhat because he was eating a lot of grass! However, Colin and Joe [Tizzard] were so helpful, their input was always welcome.”

Another trainer local to Newton is Paul Nicholls for whom he rides out in the winter. Newton was commissioned to produce a half life-sized sculpture of Kauto Star to commemorate his four victories in Haydock’s BetFair Chase and was able to have regular access to Nicholl’s celebrated charge.

“When I think back to doing Kauto Star, I used to go in every day for evening stables and brush him over,” smiles the sculptor. “That was great, to get so close, to get my hands on him, getting right up underneath his tummy, working right the way through the entire horse.

“I always used to enjoy looking after my horses as a stable lad and it took me right back to those years. When you run your hand down a horse’s tendon you know the way it feels in your hand, so it can only help when you’re doing a sculpture.

“I’ve done three or four of Paul’s horses now and the lovely thing is that they’re just down the road.

“Because I have a relationship with the yard, Paul is very accommodating, he knows I’m a safe pair of hands, I’m not going to put a horse in jeopardy in any way.

Whilst working from directly from the subject is Newton’s ideal, the nature of celebrating a life often means the study must be made posthumously. This was the case with some of his Vodafone Derby trophies, such as Sir Gordon Richards with Pinza and also with his most recent public work, that of Dick Francis at Aintree.

The sculpture was to honour not just Francis’s eight National rides, but also the huge part he played in saving the course and its most famous race. It was instigated by Peter Johnson, the former amateur jockey, a Dick Francis fan and founder of the British Sporting Art Trust. In an additional nod to his later career as an author, Francis is sculpted stood on a large pile of books.

“You really have to source as much information as you can and talk to the people who knew them,” Newton explains. “With Dick Francis I read his autobiography, it’s written with his own hand, so he’s talking directly to me.

“Because he comes from a racing background I can sense exactly what he’s talking about, so when it’s his involvement with particular horses and how they react, I can really understand and have an empathy with that. That doesn’t make a sculpture, but what it does do is give you a feeling, a sense of involvement, so I put that together with what I see in photographs.

“His sons, Merrick and Felix Francis were very much involved, too. I made the maquette and took it to show Felix and Peter Johnson – when they saw it, they got it straight away.

Facial details “least of my worries”

“It may sound weird, but when you’re making a life-size piece, the actual cosmetics of what’s going on in the face is really the least of my worries, it’s the vehicle that carries that and makes it believable that’s important. If you see someone walking down the street you don’t have to see their face to recognise them; you don’t analyse why you know who it is, you just know.”

Maquette is a small study made ahead of producing a larger piece, which Newton feels it would be impossible for him to operate without.

“I do everything literally to scale, so if the person was six-foot tall, I’d make the maquette a foot high, so I’d be multiplying by six.

“Felix came to see the life-size in the studio first. He got quite emotional I think, standing there, looking into his father’s eyes, he was mesmerised by it and absolutely loved it. Fortunately, Merrick had the same experience. That meant an awful lot to me, to know that I’d really connected. You can’t fool two sons.”

Speaking of fathers and sons, Newton’s son Toby produced the stone plinth on which the sculpture stands.

“Toby is an excellent stone carver and when they saw examples of his work, they didn’t hesitate to use him. I’d love to do more collaborations with him in the future, but stone carving is quite expensive and so is bronze, so I can understand why people might be reluctant, however presentation is everything.”

Dick Francis is one of a number of life-size public statues Newton has crafted.

The Injured Jockeys Fund’s Oaksey and Jack Berry Houses are graced by Newton’s sculptures of their namesakes, which led in part to one of his most well-known pieces, that of Lester Piggott.

Commissioned to celebrate his nine Derby wins, there will be nine editions in total. Already located in Wantage where Piggott was born, as well as Ascot, Epsom, Newmarket, York and the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, the most recent edition was unveiled at The Curragh this May.

“I first met Lester and his wife Susan when he was the subject of one of the Derby trophies [riding Sir Ivor]. That was a lovely thing to do, to meet this legend. I got on very well with him, I was very lucky. Lester was different to any other jockey, he walked more like a dancer, he moved beautifully. He was just a natural athlete.

“Later Susan asked me to do a sculpture for Lester’s 70th birthday and ‘From Start to Finish’ features his first winner The Chase and his last Palacegate Jack.

“I did other things for them as well, such as a study of Never Say Die from photos. I always call in to see Susan when I go to Newmarket, her knowledge of racing is incredible. She put work my way, so I’ll always be in her debt.”

Telling the story

Recalling the study of the artist Klaus Philipp that was completed earlier this year he says: “I’d met him a few times, so I knew him a little bit. I had the utmost respect for him, as he’s a true artist in every sense of the word, his downfall is that he paints horses and horse painters don’t get taken as seriously!

“It’s strange that animal form is given less credit than human form, it isn’t to me, or fortunately to a lot of other people.”

His current commission is also a portrait bust, these of course are quicker to produce but he says the same things apply, knowing the subject and being able to relate to them. He tackles each assignment with the same level of responsibility, whether they are famous or a family pet.

“It’s very important to the person who has commissioned it, and so it becomes important to me.

“For it to be a success it has to be completely believable, though in a sense it’s a caricature. It’s also a statement of me and my personality in that sculpture, how I interpret what I’m looking at. My burning ambition is to celebrate life and the living form in the best way I can, I like rhythm, fluidity; I like animals full stop. I do like putting two forms together, like a figure and a horse, or two horses or a horse and another animal.”

Alongside his commissioned work, Newton is working towards a future show.

“I’m exhibiting with world-class jeweller Catherine Best. She has show rooms in Mayfair and in Guernsey and Jersey. We’re just planning at the moment, but the idea is a week in each location in Spring 2024. I’d like to think they’ll be plenty of figurative sculpture in there and plenty of animals, not just equestrian pieces.”

Newton concludes: “I’ve done bulls, sheep, kudu, I don’t mind the subject matter – as long as you approach it in the right way, it has to tell a story.”