Foras Sculpture
A vision held for forty-four years
Discover the story and inspiration behind Foras’ newest sculpture, shaped by decades of vision, craft, and a deep connection to the local landscape.
Foras’ new sculpture collection (all 6–7ft) includes: Head for Flowers (top), Line and Limb (above left), and Inward Shape (above right) handcrafted in Supreme Resin for a naturally aged, time-worn finish.
Q You have described the Head for Flowers sculpture as forty-four years in the making. What does that actually mean?
When I was a teenager I came across a drawing by Salvador Dalí – a woman with flowers growing from her head. It stopped me completely. There was something in it about beauty and strength coexisting, about life finding a way even in the most unlikely conditions. I pinned it to my studio wall and it simply never came down.
For forty-four years it sat there. Not forgotten, I’d look at it and think, one day. The commission for Foras finally gave it form. It was as though the idea had been waiting for the right time.
Q The figure has no face. Was that a deliberate choice from the start?
Completely deliberate. The moment you give a figure a face, she becomes someone specific, she belongs to one person’s story. Without it, she belongs to everyone. Anyone standing in front of her can find something of themselves there.
The powerful posture does the work instead. She carries the bowl, which holds flowers — a balance of natural beauty and emotional weight. I wanted viewers to bring their own reading to it.
Q The head is a living planter. How important is it that she actually grows things?
It’s everything. She isn’t a sculpture that happens to have a planter on top, the whole concept rests on that living element. The flowers aren’t decoration; they’re the point. Life growing out of form, out of stillness.
For her first appearance at RHS Chelsea, she’ll be planted with new rose varieties from Peter Beales of Norfolk, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. There’s a beautiful symmetry in that.
Q The Line and Limb Sculpture comes from a very different place — Sea Henge, a Bronze Age monument discovered on the Norfolk coast. How did that find its way into your sculpture collection?
Sea Henge has haunted me since it was uncovered in 1998. Here was this extraordinary structure — fifty-five oak posts in a ring, four thousand years old, slowly re-emerging from the sand as if the past were refusing to stay buried. It felt deeply human, and deeply mysterious.
At its centre was an upturned tree stump. For Line and Limb, I’ve replaced that with a human figure. Where the ancient monument placed a tree, something rooted, I place a person.
“It is both a moment of stillness and a point of orientation – a contemporary echo of a prehistoric act of marking the landscape with meaning.”
CLAIRE BRUTNALL
Q Line and Limb is inspired by Sea Henge, but the figure in the piece is so alive in stance, balanced and reaching outward. Where does that energy come from?
That tension is exactly what I was after. Sea Henge is rooted posts driven into the ground, and yet the site itself was always about orientation, about finding a place in the landscape. I wanted the figure to embody that: grounded on one leg, but reaching outward in every direction at once.
There’s something of the dancer in the form — a suspended moment between movement and stillness. It feels as though the figure has just landed, or is about to leave. That keeps it alive in a way a static pose never could.
Q Both works are deeply connected to Norfolk. Is that a conscious choice or simply where you are?
Both, I think. I’ve always believed that the best work comes from somewhere specific. Line and Limb draws on a Norfolk archaeological site. Head for Flowers uses a marquetry-inspired design process and a symbol of growth. For its presentation at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and the RHS Sandringham Flower Show, it is being filled with Norfolk-grown roses. You can’t separate the work from the place.
Pictured: Showing the marquetry process of the Head for Flowers sculpture, designed by Jasmine Bradbury and developed by Foras.
Q Inward Shape feels very different in mood to the other two works — more private, almost as though you’ve caught a figure in a moment they didn’t mean to share. Was that intimacy something you were consciously working towards?
Yes, very much so. The other works reach outward in some way – one carries flowers into the world, one extends its arms into space. This one turns inward entirely. The body folds over itself, the form narrows and tightens toward the base. Everything is contained, held close.
I think of it as the sculpture you find rather than the one that greets you. It isn’t performing. It’s simply there, in the middle of something private – grief, perhaps, or deep thought, or that particular heaviness you feel before something shifts. I wanted people to recognise that moment without being told what it means.
Q The figure tapers down into the base as though it’s growing from the ground itself. Was that sense of the human merging with the earth deliberate?
It came quite naturally from the posture, but yes – once I saw it I knew it was right. There’s something in that narrowing that speaks to transformation rather than ending. The figure isn’t sinking; it’s becoming part of something larger. Rooting itself.
I think of the piece as a meditation on what it means to be human when you strip everything unnecessary away. What remains is the body and the ground beneath it.
Where to find the Foras sculptures
| HEAD FOR FLOWERS | RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 & RHS Sandringham Flower Show 2026 |
| LINE AND LIMB | RHS Sandringham Flower Show 2026 |
| INWARD SHAPE | RHS Sandringham Flower Show 2026 |
| ALL | Coming soon to the Foras showroom – available to purchase |