ARCHIVE : ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

Peter Potter Gallery launched the Lost Landscapes Programme in January 2011 with an exhibition of work by the internationally renowned sculptor and environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, OBE. Working with the ephemeral in natural environments, Goldsworthy creates and documents sculptures and arrangements made from found materials such as ice, leaves, twigs and stones. This exhibition was structured around classic photographs, including selected works from the Gracefield Arts Centre permanent collection and recent photographs from the artist’s own collection. The works included delicate sculptural forms in ice and vibrant constructions from pebbles, twigs and autumn leaves.


Andy Goldsworthy is an artist who has always had an interest in the landscape. From the age of thirteen he laboured on local farms in West Yorkshire where he grew up, and has since likened the repetitive qualities of farm work to the routines he employs in the creation of his sculptures and installations. In 1978 he completed a BA Degree in Fine Art at Preston Polytechnic, Lancashire after which he moved to Penpont, Dumfriesshire in August 1986. In January 1987, in sub-zero temperatures, he made his first major series of ice sculptures. His first book ‘Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature’ was published in June 1990 and has been followed by several major publications exploring the execution and development of his work. He travels all over the world to undertake commissions and exhibitions but the landscape near his home in Dumfriesshire in south-west Scotland still remains at the heart of his work.



  1. “Looking, touching, material, place, making, the form and resulting work are integral – difficult to say where one stops and another begins. Place is found by walking, direction determined by weather and season. I am a hunter, I take the opportunities each day offers – if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves, a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches.


  3. I stop at a place or pick up a material by feeling that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn.


  5. I might have walked past or worked there many previous times. There are places I return to over and over again, going deeper. A relationship with a place is made in layers over a long time. Staying in one place makes me more aware of change.’


  7. Andy Goldsworthy, extract from Winter Harvest



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