Deborah Duffin Artist
Deborah is best known for her three dimensional work in wire and recycled materials. Drawings of natural forms, patterns and rhythms provide a starting point for her lyrical works which have been shown widely within the locality including Greenway Gardens and Torre Abbey. She began working with wire nearly thirty years ago, and has exhibited extensively in London and national touring shows. In 1995 she was commissioned by British Telecommunications to make a celebratory sculpture, with old telephone wire, to mark their change over from Analogue to Digital technology, and her interest in recycled materials has continued to develop since then.
Finished pieces are frequently shown in relation to garden sites and architectural features. The characteristics of the site become part of the work, as these help determine the final form of these malleable pieces which become in their turn a part of the whole. Pieces can be combined to create installations in which the work makes use of its context - a recent piece created for 'Affirmations' in the Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey, made use of the height. A series of around 20 pieces were suspended from the huge beams. As visitors moved around the work, air currents caused the works to slowly revolve creating a secession of changing relationships.
Deborah has frequently undertaken commissions - often in unusual and challenging spaces - a private stairwell, an awkward alcove or the branch of a tree - exciting adventures into the unknown. She now has work in private, public and corporate collections in Britain, Europe and the USA.
Recent works have made use of her own and other peoples rubbish - the multifarious collection of stuff we tend to throw out is an inspiration to her - providing an endless supply of colours, textures and forms with which to play. She uses cut up containers, bottle tops, plastic packaging, discarded wire, and much more. These are transformed into beautiful, organic forms, in which the materials are often unrecognisable to the viewer. The resulting pieces have an intangible, spiritual energy, drawn from many loving years of following her own intuitive path.
Deborah's drawings, range from tiny objective studies to huge human sized works, full of energy and life, she works mainly with coloured pencil on paper, translating natural objects into abstract patterns and forms, these then inform her three dimensional works, installations and paintings which follow on from the ideas she develops. Some of her exhibitions have combined more than one medium, and she loves to rise to unusual challenges which present themselves.
View my website http://www.deborahduffin.co.uk/
My Location
Totnes
Email: deborahduffin@live.co.uk
Website: http://www.deborahduffin.co.uk/
Profile Details
My News
Sculpture accepted for RWA Autumn Exhibition / Tue 23rd Oct 2012
Deborah Duffin has had a sculpture accepted for the 160th Royal West of England Academy Autumn Exhibition, Bristol. The piece is entitled: 'Curl with ...
Drawing Accepted for Thelma Hulbert Open / Thu 12th Jul 2012
A drawing accepted for the Thelma Hulbert Open exhibition ' Equality and Endeavour' will be on show from 14th July to 8th September. A large (60x80cm)...
Deborah Duffin short-listed for Culture Cloud / Thu 21st Jun 2012
Deborah Duffin is one of 101 artists whose artworks have been selected to feature in the next stage of the Culture Cloud internet exhibition. Of these...
Affirmation: Affirmative Art Exhibition / Wed 4th Apr 2012
A group exhibition in the beautiful, atmospheric Spanish Barn in the grounds of Torre Abbey. Deborah Duffin's installation comprises numerous suspende...
Commission sited at University of Exeter Sculpture Trail / Mon 27th Feb 2012
'Blue/orange Zigzag with Oval' - new piece commissioned by University of Exeter sited in the Old Library, as part of the campus Sculpture Trail. This ...

















Evocation
Trespass
Multi-Coloured Circle
Blue Spiral with Ringpulls
Multi-coloured Curl
Blue/Orange Zigzag with Oval
Blue Zigzag with Orange - detail
White Spiral
Hanging Spiral I
Hanging Spiral I
Orange Weave with Loop
Scaffold Web
Zephyr - detail
Pink Rhythms
Fallout
Posy
Pile and Line