LONDON, UK.- Sculptor John Bunting, 75, has died. He taught drawing at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire for more than 30 years. John Bunting was born in London, a tea broker’s son. He was sent to school at Ampleforth in 1941 ("in spite of getting single figures out of 100 in algebra and geometry. For arithmetic I managed to get into the modest 20s"). The school and monastery were fitted out with robust oak furniture made at nearby Kilburn by Robert Thompson - famous for the discreetly positioned carved mice with which he signed his work. Bunting sought out the Thompson workshop and was immediately enthralled. "When the summer came I determined to spend a week at Kilburn - in this one week I found my vocation, though it took another 40 years to work it out." After leaving school, Bunting spent three months working for Thompson and returned in 1948, after national service in the Royal Marines and his first taste of the sea.

 

A deep empathy for the landscape and people of north Yorkshire was to stay with Bunting throughout his life, but a visit to Henry Moore sent him back to London. "He looked at my photographs of carvings, then advised me to go to art school and learn to draw and get a teaching qualification to be able to earn a living. Then he asked me to tea. This was good advice and I acted upon it and applied to St Martin’s School of Art." Moving on from there to the Royal College of Art, Bunting was taught by some of the pre-eminent sculptors of the day - Frank Dobson, John Skeaping and, most influentially, Leon Underwood.