The Richard Bray Story

1. How did you come to art?

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I started out as a photographer, and my practice gradually evolved into more of a sculptural intervention in the landscape. I was creating photographic sequences; I made one tracing the movement of a journey through different landscapes. Every site I visited, I made a cairn – a pyramid – out of the materials I found there. The journey was a spiral upwards, ending on top of the Cnicht in Wales: a beautiful pyramidal form. 

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So I was already using natural materials. Then in the 1980s, my wife and I went to Tanzania with VSO (Volunteer Service Overseas) and I started working in the forest, working with wood. It held more permanence: I think that was what attracted me initially.
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2. What drives you to create?

I get into a zone, and the work appears almost as a benefit. It’s a lovely place to be: when I’m drawing in the shed, it could be cold and wet and windy outside, but in my head it’s this perfect Summer’s day because I’m very, very focused on what I’m doing. And in a sense, the artwork is a projection of that intense focus.

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3. What inspires you?

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The wood itself. And the actual process of making is very inspiring too: I set myself up with a system – a challenge – and then I work within that. Every decision I make, at the beginning of something new, has many, many, many options, and I know there are a lot more out there waiting. 

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In terms of artists, I would say my most important early influences were David Nash, Richard Long, Hamish Fulton and Giuseppe Penone. Penone’s Tree of 12 Metres (1980-1982) fascinated me because the branches stop where the original surface of the beam stopped: that invisible boundary is contained within the sculpture. The beam is still there. And within that manufactured form is the organic form of the tree that created it. 
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4. What do you need to make your art?

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Time, energy and space: a space where you can just concentrate on the work.

 

You need technical skills, which – at least in my case – you can build by yourself, through trial and error. And you need an ‘I wonder what’s going to happen if I do this?’ kind of mentality: an openness to what a student of mine used to call ‘happy mistakes’! But it’s apt, because mistakes are so valuable. Every mistake reveals something new about the process and the materials. 

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Finally, you need stimulation, which you get through being inquisitive: through exhibitions, museums, galleries, even TV programmes. I always used to tell my students, you’ve got to be like a sponge, especially when you’re starting out. You’ve got to absorb as much as you can. If you’re truly sensitive to what you’re looking at, in most cases there will be something there – an insight, a little nugget of information – that you can use.
 

5. What is the process by which you make your work?

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Once the wood is prepared, I put it up on the wall and just really think about what I’m looking at. What I think I can see, and what I want to draw out in the finished piece. 

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Effectively, it’s about setting up a relationship with the wood, as the viewer: giving the wood a kind of agency. It has things to show you, if you’re in the right frame of mind to be shown. 

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There’s more to see if you are willing to see it.
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6. How is your art influenced by the space in which you create it?

From the first – in the forest in Tanzania – I haven’t necessarily wanted to make work about the natural environment. But the objects I create have a sort of natural completeness and integrity in and of themselves: that’s always been important to me. Each work is a system that’s self-contained. There’s a pleasure to something that starts and finishes in a logical sequence.

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With the Wolfson College exhibition, I wanted both the natural shapes and the more architectural shapes to relate to their particular settings. It’s more like an installation: it’s quite subtle, almost hiding its light under a bushel in a way. The three posts on the lawn, for example, are positioned so that the light on the building behind enables you to see the shape running through the sculptures: but it takes you a little while to make sense of what you’re looking at!
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7. How do you respond to limitations and constraints?

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My practice is about staying within the original parameters of the wood itself: retaining that structure, and testing it right to the edge. There are points of extreme delicacy and fragility: you work through a lot of tension during the creative process. You have to concentrate really hard, and that gives you a wonderful sense of presence.

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Then of course there’s the natural durability and longevity of the material. But I enjoy how unpredictable it is. As wood ages, it shifts and cracks; it takes on a life of its own, in response to how it’s been handled. The form is released by the actual making of the work.

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8. What does being in a community like COS mean for you?

 

As Chair, I’m keen to foster a real sense of support between artists. Encouragement, particularly early on, is vital: it’s what you need to start believing in what you’re doing. Any creative activity needs some kind of reinforcement. 

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The great thing about Open Studios is that anybody is welcome to join in, it’s extremely inclusive.

9. What is art for? 

 

Above all, it’s for you; it’s a manifestation of the drive that you have to make something. I think many artists are almost pleasantly surprised by the fact that they can actually make something. Of their own: that’s very important. The rewarding thing about art is that you actually have the chance to do it. And it doesn’t have to be anything grand, or complicated, or expensive.

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Then, secondly, there’s the effect this thing you’ve made is going to have on a potential audience. For me, it’s important that it challenges – and enhances – your perception. So that you come away changed, in some way, from that experience. 

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Art provides us with new ways of looking, and thinking, and creating beauty: although of course it’s about much more than just beauty.
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Based on an interview between Richard Bray and Georgia Short on 3 August 2026.

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Richard Bray is an ArtSpace5-7 represented artist.​​​​