Anemone: Plaster Panel Art by Geoffrey Preston

Geoffrey Preston is an architectural sculptor specialising in decorative plaster and in particular the art of stucco. He studied sculpture at Hornsey College of Art, trained as a stonemason and carver, and was a founding director of two of the country’s most respected conservation companies. In 2000 he set up his studio in Devon, where he works with a small team creating beautiful new work commissioned by architects, designers and private clients. 

Geoffrey has found a rich seam of inspiration in the modelling of flowers and leaves in 18th century plasterwork and their representation in other decorative arts, from the flowers of chintz textiles to the painting of Sèvres and Nymphenburg porcelain. He finds it an enduring challenge to represent the ephemeral and delicate quality of flowers in a concrete, material form. 

Credited by Country Life Magazine with creating ‘the most inspiring plaster decoration of modern times’, in 2021 Geoffrey was awarded an MBE for services to stucco and plasterwork in Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Honours.