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Debs Harrison
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Deborah was born in Pudsey, West Yorkshire. She is an international award-winning contemporary sculptor who specialises in stone. With a background in Biological Sciences and teaching, Deborah discovered stone carving in her middle years at an arts festival and went on to study sculpting with the Open College Network in Bristol. She was then accepted for UWE’s BA in Fine Art, where she discovered that the technique she uses is the modernist method of ‘carving direct’ which contrasted with the conceptually focused methods that were being taught. Deborah was accepted into the Gloucester Stonemason’s Carving Festival, by concession, and after securing the highest bid for her piece at the auction, she enrolled for a diploma in stone masonry at Bath City College. She then turned professional.
Deborah lives with the stones until she sees the image within and then is led by their grain, form and colour until it reaches a kind of skin, and the sculpture takes on a life of its own.
‘Her carving is very sensitive and imbues such character and pathos rarely seen in a piece of stone’ – Southwest Academy of Applied and Fine Arts’ Guest Judge - Joseph Hillier
Her circumstances, social context and spirituality synergizes with the stones’ aesthetic qualities, which results in both figurative and abstract forms encompassing a wide variety of themes. She carves both indoor and outdoor pieces in many types of stone but is best known for her alabaster sculpture.
Deborah works collaboratively with local groups in the community leading stone carving workshops, including Matson Sculpture Festival, the Broadway Arts Festival, workshops in local schools including Gloucester Academy, as well as Brendan’s Bridge and Barton & Tredworth Fair.
Deborah has sold pieces in Europe and the USA, as well as to notable buyers such as Gloucestershire’s NHS Trust to celebrate their 75th anniversary and to Sir Malcolm Evans, the ten-year chair of the UN anti-torture committee (the sculpture appears on the cover of his book Tackling Torture). She has exhibited widely in the UK including London’s OXO Gallery, Doddington Hall, Beaulieu, the RWA, Fresh Art Fair (Cheltenham and Ascott), Bath Society of Artists and the Mall Galleries with the Women’s Artist Society. She has recently completed stone commissions for Lord Montagu and for the businesses in the City of Gloucester to create a gift to His Majesty King Charles III.
Deborah leads stone carving courses at Gloucester Cathedral and also at her workshop in Gloucester where she teaches masterclasses in carving alabaster. She is a founder member of the Cotswold Sculptors Association which began in November 2017 and now has over one hundred members. She is a director of the Gloucester Contemporary Artists (GCA) CIC which is newly formed to address Gloucester being the only City in the UK not to have a dedicated Fine Art Gallery. This year was Gloucester’s first Open Studios and Art Trail lead by GCA. She is a Trustee of the Christian Arts Festival based in Cheltenham.
Prizes and Awards:
Selector’s Choice Award for the RWA Friends Exhibition 2024
Spiritual Art Award 2023 (3D section, global)
Ashburner Sculpture Prize 2022
The SWAc Sculpture Award 2020
The SWAc Guest Judges Award 2020.
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