Conor Fallon (1939-2007) was one of the finest Irish sculptors since the Second World War, and his reputation is likely to grow steadily in the decades to come. He came to sculpture rather late, when he was approaching thirty.

He received much help and advice from older colleagues, but the considerable expertise he built up in the handling of steel, bronze and other materials was acquired almost entirely through his own, unsparing efforts and physical energy. To the end of his life he was a technical perfectionist, striving for the most exact realisation of the images he had in his mind's eye and sparing no effort or pains to give his works the final degree of finish and formal compactness.

The result is a large, varied, but remarkably even body of work, in which nothing left his studio unless he was wholly satisfied that he had given it his best and could take it no further. The typescript for Thoughts on Sculpture was written near the end of his life and only discovered after his death. It encapsulates his whole credo and outlook as an artist, along with personal (often humorous) reminiscences and analyses of the creative figures he especially admired. It also includes very detailed descriptions of his working methods, suggesting that it was written partly as a guide to younger sculptors laboriously learning their craft.

Few liberties have been taken in editing the texts for this book: Conor Fallon knew best what he wanted to say, and his words are an integral part of his thinking.