Darren Oates

My sculptural work follows closely to my furniture design ethos. All my sculptures involve curves and I try to keep my flowing lines simple. While trying to maintain this apparent simplicity, I also want pieces that will stand out and not blend into the background. In essence, I am aiming to produce collectable art for the next century to come. In 2007 I was very fortunate to spend ten months being tutored by the late Tom Harrington at Sturt School for Wood in Mittagong NSW. It is hard to put into words just how much this changed my life. Before this I was a woodworker who was making good quality pieces but had absolutely no design experience. The biggest thing I came away from Sturt with was my own design ethos. Fifteen years later I am still making a full time living in the manner that was taught to me by Tom. The methods I use to make these pieces are either by steam bending or curved laminations. Each method having their pros and cons. Steam bending a solid piece of timber will allow shaping that lamination cannot. But due to the time involved with the soaking, steaming and the drying process, one sculpture may take up to a couple of weeks to complete. Curved laminations, is a very involved process for the production of the laminations, and sanding the final form may take half a day. But a result can usually be achieved in less overall time than steam bending. Responsible timber sourcing is also very important to me. Most of my pieces are made from reclaimed Australian native timbers. These are trees that have been cut down to make way for developments, usually housing estates, roads and highways, industrial and commercial sites. These trees go to waste. But thankfully there are people willing to collect this precious material and mill it into timber that can be used. Darren Oates 2023