In 2022 I was commissioned by Donnington Parish Council to design and create public art in the form of a sculpture. The setting of the artwork is coastal, within the Manhood Peninsula on the Sussex coast. The title of the piece is ‘Confluence’, referring to the joining of rivers, a place where nature flows together, and man aims to flow with nature. The sculpture is a leaf shape if viewed on plan. The two vertical curved sides represent the movement of water.

The element of water visually transports us to the significance of the nearby canal. Visitors can find links to the canal within the design, hopefully then discovering those elements within their experience of walking or cycling along the path there.

I used steel which resonates with the description of the old Selsey tramway that was once present and travelled to the sea. The piece is made using a fusion of hand worked techniques and industrial processes.

My enamelled, decorative surface uses a series of overlapping elements to be found on the canal and the Manhood Peninsula. You can experience the water, wildflowers, lilypads, birds and small mammals if you walk alongside the canal. I was lucky enough to experience the drama and scale of a magnificent heron at Crosbie Bridge not far away, which appears in silhouette on the front face of the sculpture. The bird has a reflection of itself in the water below, just as it was seen. These demonstrate the connectivity of the waterways and the natural convergence of the flora and fauna that flow into one another. With the inclusion of the Pipistrelle bat, one may also interpret the composition as evening and morning.