Anton's Smit's Sculpture Launch at Leonardslee

Growing Leonardslee by Leonardslee Gardens

Join us for the latest ‘Growing Leonardslee’ podcast as Adam Streeter talks to South African artist Anton Smit and estate owner Penny Streeter about the creation of one of Europe’s largest sculpture parks and Anton’s magnificent new exhibition ‘The Walk of Life’.

Anton tells us how he went against all his family’s expectations for his career to dedicate himself to sculpture. In 2018 he and his wife Roelien met Penny for the first time and realised their mutual love of South African art. A highly successful sculpture exhibition at Penny’s Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate, in Western Cape, followed in 2019

Penny and Anton then agreed, together with Adam, an even more ambitious event at Leonardslee for the following year. Their plans for an April 2020 launch were derailed by the worldwide pandemic. Now at last, the exhibition has opened.

Anton and Adam talk about the huge challenges in creating and shipping the monumental sculptures and creating the world's largest sculpture park by a single artist; how the artist used a drone to create a giant map of the 240-acre estate and spent days exploring the Grade I Listed gardens to plan the exact positioning of each of the more than 80 individual sculptures.

Penny describes how the estate is creating highly popular curated art tours and is already receiving many enquiriesfrom art groups, collectors and galleries.

Adam says Leonardslee members seem to love the exhibition – the giant masks are a special favourite, and the stunning 7.5m ‘Faith’, which is still being erected by crane close to Leonardslee House, is creating massive interest.

A limited number of tickets are now available for this special launch event, which includes a 30-45 minute highlights tour of the sculpture park exhibition. Tours are from Wednesday 22nd to Sunday 26th September - further private tours by arrangement.