Yasmin Watts’ practice is a conversation between hand and structure, between embodied intuition and architectural thought. Each work begins in rhythm: sketching, cutting, folding. Models built from cardboard and paper become spatial rehearsals—mapping out how form might breathe.

I build rhythm. I look for calm in structure.
I look for stillness in repetition.
I make space to wait. To rest. To hold. To be.

Her training in architecture informs her sensitivity to proportion and spatial choreography. But her sculptural methodology moves beyond function into material feeling. Repetition becomes language. Rhythm becomes structure.

Figures are developed through drawing and clay; refined by gesture, not symmetry. Their positioning is as critical as their form; they rest within space as if remembering something lost. Clay, wax, plaster and ash become tactile carriers of memory.

I carve space. I carve silence. I don’t fill it. I don’t explain.
I shape. I listen. I remember. I become.

Surface is never passive. It is carved, layered, pierced, coloured—always responsive. Pigments drawn from Zoroastrian tradition; flame reds, ash greys, verdant greens, binding material with heritage.

I was born from fire. Zoroastrian fire.
A memory of fire. A flame passed down.
Palm to palm. Mouth to mouth.
Still burning. I hold it.

I sculpt with time and tension.
Each mark remembers something the body knew before language.

Sustainability is integral. Watts works with reclaimed materials; wood, metals, earth-based compounds, where rawness and refinement coexist. These materials don’t hide their past; they hold it.

Her process folds across disciplines. Painting becomes spatial. Sculpture becomes rhythmic. Light is used not as highlight, but as structure—shaping how space is felt.

Material has weight. It has temperature. It tells the truth.
You can touch it. It touches back.

Watts builds through listening: to materials, to absence, to proximity. This is a methodology not of production, but of attention.

I don’t explain. I shape. I listen. I remember.
I become.

I don’t begin with answers.
I build to ask.
I layer until something begins to breathe.

The result is a body of work that remembers through form; sculptures that don’t explain, but embody.

Concept stages

My making methods involve testing concepts with paper models.
Hand-crafted concept maquette by Yasmin Watts, made from recycled materials, reflecting her sustainable artistic practice.

My making methods involve testing concepts with paper models.

Initial hand sketches by Yasmin Watts, capturing spatial and conceptual ideas that guide her creative process.
Hand-crafted concept maquette by Yasmin Watts, made from recycled materials, reflecting her sustainable artistic practice.
Through digital design, Yasmin Watts breathes life into her concept sketches, unfolding them into expansive sculptural forms that blend imagination and precision.
Through digital design, Yasmin Watts breathes life into her concept sketches, unfolding them into expansive sculptural forms that blend imagination and precision.
Clay sculptures of people using mobile phones, displayed on wooden bases and platforms.
A cardboard art piece in the shape of a human head and face, mounted on a white foam board, with various tools and supplies in the background.
Sculpture in progress of two young girls on a staircase, with one sitting on a step and the other standing at the bottom, in a workshop setting.

Sculpting process

Clay sculpture of three seated people in a studio with sketches on the wall behind them.
Line drawing of a man sitting on a ledge or bench, smiling, with hands clasped together, wearing a jacket, pants, and sneakers, on graph paper background.
Sketch of three women sitting, viewed from different angles, with a grid background.
Sketch of two men dressed in suits standing on a grid.
Clay sculpture of a girl sitting cross-legged on a wooden base
A bronze statue of a man standing with a confident posture, looking upward with hands in his pockets, dressed in a suit with a casual jacket, on a wooden base.

Sculpted figures captured from life models in pencil sketches, sculpted in clay and wax, cast in jesmonite and plaster and hand-painted.

Sequence of images showing the evolution of a sculpted figure: sketch studies, clay sculpture, 3D scan, and a painted sculpture of a seated child.

Evolutions of a sculpted figure from sketch studies, sculpting in clay, 3D scan of sculpted figure to change scale and proportion, cast and hand-painted completed figure.