An artist whose portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh was accepted into the late Queen’s private collection has gifted a powerful new sculpture to a church in Mirfield.
Richard Gower, who has recently moved from Upper Hopton to Mirfield, created the work after a sudden moment of inspiration while clearing his old studio during the move.
The 1.5m-long sculpture is called ‘Grieving Mother At The Foot Of Her Dying Son … Mary’ and shows Mary reclining at the foot of the cross.
Richard made the piece from plaster of Paris, clay, stained wood and a mannequin head, with pebbles placed around the figure to suggest the rocky ground at Calvary, where Jesus was crucified.
He said: “I was clearing stuff out of the old studio and there was some packing paper from a delivery on the floor.
“I just saw this paper and thought it looked like the legs of a woman reclining. It wasn’t a deliberate thing. It just suddenly came to me.
“I started developing it and then thought: ‘Crikey, this looks like Mary.’”
Richard is best known for his impressionist oil paintings and his Reflections series, but he studied fine art and sculpture at Batley Art College in the 1980s and has begun to sculpt again at his new home studio on Hepworth Close.
He said: “When I’d finished it, I thought: ‘What am I going to do with this? I can’t possibly sell it.’
“I had just moved to Mirfield and St Mary’s is my local church, so I thought I’d gift it to them.”
Rather than arrange a formal handover, Richard loaded the sculpture into his car and left it outside the gates of St Mary’s Church one night.
When he returned the next morning, it had gone.
The artist added: “I presumed it had been vandalised or pinched. Then I went back into the church a couple of weeks later and there it was.
“It had been placed beneath the old altar and it fitted perfectly. It was unbelievable.”
The work now has a home in an area being set aside for quiet prayer. Richard said the church plans to place special lighting around the sculpture and add a plaque with his details.
He said the reaction to the piece had already been deeply moving.
Richard was told one woman, whose son had recently taken his own life, found comfort in the sculpture after seeing it in the church.
He said: “It gave me goosebumps. It is so powerful to know the work meant something to her.”
Richard has previously received royal recognition for his work. His portrait of the late Duke of Edinburgh was accepted into Queen Elizabeth II’s private collection after he sent it to Buckingham Palace, a moment he later described as “a real honour” and one of the proudest achievements of his career.
St Mary’s Church officials have now asked him to write about the sculpture for the parish magazine, and he may also speak about the work after a Sunday service.
For Richard, the sculpture has opened up a new direction alongside his painting.
He said: “It breaks up my working day as a painter. As a creative, I work every day and if something comes to me, I follow it.”
