Peter Corlett is a leading Australian figurative sculptor. In the past 40 years he has completed over 30 major public sculpture commissions. Best known for his full-figure portrait sculptures cast in bronze, his earlier abstract works and ‘supra-realist’ works of the 1960’s - early 1980’s in concrete and fibre-glass are also found in local and overseas galleries and private collections. He created the Australian Light Horse WW1 memorial sculpture unveiled in 2008 at Be’er Sheva, Israel.

Peter’s work, whether the Casterton Kelpie , Phar Lap , Simpson and his Donkey , or supernaturals such as Pegasus and Fortuna , and his human subjects, is inspired by his grasping for the mythic archetype. His creative struggle is aided by technical skill gained over many years and collaboration with Meridian Sculpture Founders, Fitzroy, in Melbourne.

My Way of Working

Fundamentally humanist, my work is about being alive, about what makes me me and you you; about the individual and the universal, what connects us within the diversity of our modern worlds.

My work is a wondering about the wonderful that we can all be, and are. Alive with life, the desire of and gift is love. A humane art, of expressive psychological realism. I attempt to make probing, perceptive, yet ennobling expressions, representations of people – works of dignity that speak to others with, and of, compassion, strength and generosity.

Working directly with people present, and from photographs, I model in clay in an open spontaneous manner trying to see what is within and catch it, even fleeting away. With rich lively surfaces and layers of form, I cast them in bronze, warm with patina’s waxed hues.

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