About Ronald Rae

About the Sculptor, Ronald Rae

Artists are known for being obsessive but perhaps few are challenged as physically and intellectually as the Scottish sculptor Ronald Rae when he stands alone with a hammer and chisel facing several tonnes of granite, one of the hardest stones in the world.

The Ronald Rae Sculpture Exhibition of hand carved granite sculptures has been on tour in England since 1994 showing at major venues such as Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Regent’s Park, London, the Natural History Museum, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh and now at The Falkirk Wheel.

Each exhibition has varied in theme with new sculptures being added whilst others have found permanent homes. The current exhibition at The Falkirk Wheel includes three of Rae’s latest work including a most tender work, the ten tonne Heavy Horse and Foal. Also being exhibited for the first time – Three Elephants and St. Francis. The sculptures were carved over the past twenty years in the grounds of Cramond Kirk in Edinburgh.

Ronald Rae was born in Ayr, Scotland in 1946. Whilst still in short trousers he struck his first granite rock. At the age of twelve he was drawing a weekly cartoon strip for a local newspaper. Drawing would be an important part of his life but sculpture his main love and obsession.

In the beginning Rae explored his faith through his art. This resulted in a large series of emotive drawings and carvings based on the life of Christ. Being brought up in the countryside it followed that he expressed his appreciation of animals in his art. Aware of his Celtic heritage he thrilled at seeing Scotland’s ancient carved stones and Celtic crosses that often included wild boar, horses and bears. Some of these animals are celebrated at The Falkirk Wheel exhibition.

Rae was always intrigued by prehistoric cave art. This perhaps inspired his relief sculpture Bison. In this work he did not carve the stone in the round but used his chisel to draw on its surface. Also carved in relief is the monumental Tyger Tyger.

The pink and grey granite that Rae has carved for the past twenty years comes from Kemnay and Tillyfourie quarries in Aberdeenshire. The silver grey granite he used for his earlier works came from Creetown and Dalbeattie quarries on the Solway Firth. The oldest granite is 470 million years old. It is in these quarries that Rae finds the right stone or the stone finds him. He makes no plans in advance for his sculptures. He carves intuitively to find what is within each stone. Often he finds animals. To him it is “a miracle.” He says passionately “I do not just carve animals, I try to carve the spirit of animals. The sculptures are a thank you for my life – they are my prayers”.

After 45 years of carving granite Ronald Rae now has many sculptures in private and public collections in the UK and abroad. Not only a sculptor he draws, paints, works in mixed media and writes poetry.
For pleasure he walks, cycles, listens to world music and plays folk instruments. At present he is working on a series of large format books and Family Bibles. See list on right hand column under ART on the Home Page.