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Chance Meeting |
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 David Winter was born on 18th December 1958 at
Catterick in Yorkshire. His father was in the army which meant that his
childhood was spent in a number of different locations including; Yorkshire,
Kent, Hampshire and Surrey. There were also extended periods spent abroad in
Singapore and Malaysia. Both David and his sister Alice inherited their
artistic talent from their mother, Faith Winter, a sculptor of international
reputation whose work includes the Falklands War Memorial in Port Stanley and a
statue of Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, who was Commander-in-Chief of the
Royal Air Force's Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, which is in the
Strand, London.
On leaving school it was a natural progression for
him to assist in his mother's studio, and it was here that he learned the
techniques and skills of his craft. He was intending to enrol in art college
but this slowly receded into the background as he worked for his mother. It was
during the summer of 1979, while he was creating pottery ceramic tiles that he
then sold from a stall in Guildford market, that he had a chance meeting with
John Hine.
John Hine had recently sold his interest in a
garden centre so that he could develop an idea he had for selling
three-dimensional heraldic plaques. As a number of garden sculptures created by
Faith Winter had been on display at the garden centre John immediately thought
of her as the ideal person to sculpt them. However, when John put his proposal
to her she was too busy to accept. But she passed the idea onto David who made
a test plaque using a silicon rubber mould and then casting it in a hard and
durable gypsum plaster given the trade name "Crystacal" by its manufacturer,
British Gypsum. John was delighted with what he saw and so their working
partnership had begun.
As they needed a painter for this
project an advertisement was placed in a local newspaper. It was answered by
Audrey White, who was given a sample plaque to demonstrate her talent. When
John saw her work he knew that he had his painter. |
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