The former engineer who also has a bachelor of fine art said the Sydney centric nature of the organisation was not only stifling his creativity but was also standing in the way of nurturing talent in the Hunter region.

So Mr McFarlane decided to set up a similar group in his hometown of Newcastle.

“The society was not too keen on me setting up another branch so I went out on my own.  The group I set was quite an ad hoc group,” he said.

“There were no joining fees and we were mainly responsible for organising the Mattara Sculptural exhibition.”

Today this group has evolved into Australian Sculpture Hunter Region Incorporated and they just hosted their annual Singleton exhibition.

This is the second year it has been held at the Sisters of Mercy Convent and it runs in conjunction with the Singleton Art Prize.

And the group are hoping that one day the exhibition will be as popular as its 2-D counterpart.

Attracting sponsors so we can offer more prize money is the only way to grow the event says Mr McFarlane.

Roger is passionate about pursing this goal after only taking up this art form later in life.

“Although I was always interested in sculpture it was not until I was in my 40’s that I enrolled in a WEA  class,” he said.

He was initially trained by Derek Morgan, a gifted sculptor who inspired him to continually try harder.

But when it came to learning to work with marble Roger had to head overseas.

“I travelled to Italy in 1994, 1997, and 1999 for a month at a time to a town called Pietrasanta in Northern Tuscany.  Where I trained at the Palla Atelier under the tutelage of Claudio Pall, a fourth generation, highly respected sculptor who is proficient at the art of intarsia and sculpture restoration,” he said.

“It was a wonderful experience.”

Intarsia is a woodworking technique that uses varied shapes, sizes, and species of wood fitted together to create a mosaic-like picture with an illusion of depth and this technique can also be applied to marble.

After this he also completed a fine art degree at the University of Newcastle.

From here his career has blossomed and Roger has been invited to create public sculptures all over the world from South Korea and China to Brazil and Switzerland.

Roger says he enjoys the process and the challenge of creating an art work from strong materials.

Greg Lawrence is also a member of Australian Sculpture Hunter Region Incorporated and also displayed some of his sculptures at the Singleton exhibition.

He mainly works with wood and sometimes incorporates stainless steel into his pieces.

The Vietnam veteran and former business consultant says he uses sculpture as a form of therapy.

“I discovered a creative side I never knew existed,” he said.

Greg discovered this “creative side” while learning to work with wood and is now also a cabinet maker.

“Sculpting gives me the opportunity to create and express my ideas,” he said

“The only problem is we need more opportunities to exhibit our work.  Finding appropriate venues is always an issue but the convent is the perfect space to hold such an event.”

This is why we want to try to expand this event and encourage any Singleton sculptures to join our group, Greg said.

It is such a beautiful space with its polished floors, high ceilings and stained-glass windows and there is plenty of room for people to move between each piece, agreed Roger.

A highlight of this year’s exhibition was the inclusion of three maquettes created by renowned Newcastle based sculptures Tanya Bartlett, who amongst other things created ‘The Pioneer’.

This is the 2m high Bronze commissioned in honour of Singleton’s early pioneers that now sits in the forecourt of the Civic Centre and Council Chambers and was unveiled last Friday when the exhibition opened.

Greg explained a maquette is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture.

Ms Bartlett also created the Les Darcy bronze in Maitland, Smokey Dawson in Tamworth, Redoubt Choice, a figure of a horse and rider located at Arrowfield Stud and the famous Don Bradman figure at Bowral Oval.

In fact the Don Bradman maquette was on display at the convent, he said.

“There was a diverse range of sculptures on display from those created with bronze to some fashioned from melted vinyl records to birdcage wire.

“And hopefully next year it will be even bigger and better,” Mr Lawrence said.

Australian Sculpture Hunter Region Incorporated currently have 30 members and meet regularly to learn from each other to improve their technique, organise exhibitions and network.

They would love to expand their membership base and encourage anyone in Singleton who has an interest in sculpting to join the group.