Jane Robbins - how I became a sculptor

My mum was a sculptor, and when I was a little girl I used to watch her sculpt, draw and paint. I remember her sitting for hours teaching me how to draw a face and look at how peoples bodies were put together in the physical form. She encouraged me to look at trees and how their branches were shaped and I'd take my sketchbook and sit in the local woods completely lost in the wonders of how things grew and formed patterns. Having a bohemian artistic mother was what got me interested in a career in the arts. I was lucky because Dad was involved in the entertainment business so he encouraged us all to be imaginative and just "follow our dreams". Our parents never told any of their five children that we should get a proper job. After all, our cousin Paul McCartney was in the Beatles at the time so they could hardly tell us we'd never make any money out of our aspirations!

We all followed our hearts in terms of our chosen careers. My brother Ted Robbins became a comedian and actor, my sister Kate an impressionist, Emma became a session singer (in the 3 Sheila's), and Amy an actor. I went to art college, whereupon I briefly got dragged into show business and a band called Prima Donna by my sister Kate. We came to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980, and came third! I decided then that I was better at art than I was prancing about on stage in a silly outfit.

After all my years in sculpting, I still take my sketchbook and draw people. I find faces endlessly fascinating - once asking a waitress if I could take her photograph so that I could sculpt her. I explained she had an Italian renaissance face that was very unusual in Britain, and after she'd got over the shock of a strange woman asking to sculpt her portrait, she agreed to model for me. I think she was disappointed I wasn't going to make her the next Kate Moss, but she did have a great face and that is what I tried to capture in the clay sculpture.

Sculpting Linda McCartney was a great experience too because Linda had great bone structure and a really kind, lovely smile. Paul McCartney asked me to sculpt Linda shortly after her death and I was honored to do so. Having known Linda most of my life, it seemed easy to study her photos for the bronze statue and recreate her likeness. Quite a lot of my portrait sculpture work has been posthumous and although sometimes its sad that the person isn't around to see the statue or finished bust, it always gives me great pride to see the pleasure the families get from a bronze sculpted image of their loved one - hopefully capturing the essence of that person and creating a permanent and very personal tribute to their life.