“Stone is stuff from which the British sculpture tradition is hewn. Bronze and wood, steel and the junk of mass consumerism, film and video even have all played a part but the roots of the sculpture in this country are rock solid. It's a story that weaves its way from grandeur of ancient standing stones to the delicacy of ecclesiastical carvings and on to beginnings of modernism and the celebration of what Moore and Hepworth called "truth to materials".
Nicolas Moreton is a modern master of the medium of stone-carving but with a strong sense of tradition. His work somehow suggests the primordial power of the stuff with which he wrestles so deftly but has much of the subtlety of the great but anonymous stone-masons of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries where one material seems transformed into another before our eyes.
His current project promises to be a National Stone Carving Tour de Force. On one level it takes sculpture back into the past and offers the chance - without hubris - to compare the traditional with the contemporary; on another, it promises to be a vast and ambitious performance - where the private world of the studio is made public and the mysteries - not to mention the sheer physical effort of working the stone - are laid bare. “ - Tim Marlow. Art Critic and Director of Exhibitions for the White Cube Gallery. London. 2004.
