What is it about sculpting that makes the last bit so hard ? I have been trying to analyse it .
When you start a piece, the vision of what could be drives you forward , comunicating it's potential is difficult and the client needs to have trust . The work begins to appear , evolving , seemingly making it's own journey, taking you with it .
Nearing the end , the vision seems to get in the way ! Sometimes blinding the artist to it's true value , similar to a sort of dismorphia , either under or overvaluing it's properties . So I am now in this state , trying to finish the full size figure , aware that the over observation has rendered me temporally blind to it's values ,is the nose too wide ? Ears too flat or eyes to small? like a particularly lovely ladies obsession with the size of her butt can eclipse her gorgeous curves !
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Corbelled together
And so the saga of the corbel continues , I have been trying not to write about it over the last few posts as the endless grind was bound to be incredibly boring.
The corbel has undergone another drastic shrinkage and has apparently been given the seal of approval !
Meanwhile the colour has made it's final journey ( hopefully !) to just off black , the furthest you can get from it's origional caramel.
Went to see a fantastic show last week , War Horse at the New London Theater , we went for Noels birthday present from me , what a fabulous play , the story of a foals life growing up on a farm and then ending up on the western front during the First World War .
The horses were played by amazing fullsize puppets that stole the show , they fought each other ,charged into battle ridden by their officer owners.
The movements were perfectly observed and brought goosebumps out on the skin !
There were also other puppets occupying the stage, screaming summmery house martins ,a gabbling goose in the farm yard and most spookily crows descend to feed on the dead corpses of both human and horse .
The corbel has undergone another drastic shrinkage and has apparently been given the seal of approval !
Meanwhile the colour has made it's final journey ( hopefully !) to just off black , the furthest you can get from it's origional caramel.
Went to see a fantastic show last week , War Horse at the New London Theater , we went for Noels birthday present from me , what a fabulous play , the story of a foals life growing up on a farm and then ending up on the western front during the First World War .
The horses were played by amazing fullsize puppets that stole the show , they fought each other ,charged into battle ridden by their officer owners.
The movements were perfectly observed and brought goosebumps out on the skin !
There were also other puppets occupying the stage, screaming summmery house martins ,a gabbling goose in the farm yard and most spookily crows descend to feed on the dead corpses of both human and horse .
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
May contain nuts
Coming to the final straight on my bramble bush carving for the client with royal conections .
The foliage is almost there , just need to carve all the berries in black walnut and purple heart . Having roughed out the shapes I have realised that it now looks like a testicle bush !!
Thinking of all those emasculated male bodyparts it brings to mind the ominous spectre of my eldest daughters 13th Birthday sleep over .
The 5 friends has now multiplied to 7 and her bedroom is now to be replaced by our sitting room as party central .
So as dominant male in this house, rather than retreat quietly to our room for the duration , clutching a packet of hob nobs to my manily chest ,I have decided to regroup with fellow Stags ( well Rick anyway ), quaff ale and swop masculine anecdotes for the night ! No ..not a male sleep over , more of a meeting of the brotherhood .
The foliage is almost there , just need to carve all the berries in black walnut and purple heart . Having roughed out the shapes I have realised that it now looks like a testicle bush !!
Thinking of all those emasculated male bodyparts it brings to mind the ominous spectre of my eldest daughters 13th Birthday sleep over .
The 5 friends has now multiplied to 7 and her bedroom is now to be replaced by our sitting room as party central .
So as dominant male in this house, rather than retreat quietly to our room for the duration , clutching a packet of hob nobs to my manily chest ,I have decided to regroup with fellow Stags ( well Rick anyway ), quaff ale and swop masculine anecdotes for the night ! No ..not a male sleep over , more of a meeting of the brotherhood .
Monday, 3 January 2011
Taking the Peace
My peacekeeping mission with the house has ended in a bad case of friendly fire.
I have been eyeballing the crack above the fireplace ,daring it to expand ,when the house expanded its campaign by springing a leak in the spare toilet , this out flanking manoeuvre was quickly parried with a tightening of a couple of bolts and disaster was apparently averted !
Flushed with success at my D.I.Y skills, I ,in a brief lapse of concentration tried putting on boots in the hall using the hopping technique beloved of school boys of a slightly lesser build. To put no finer point on it , gravity won and my shoulder came to rest a couple of cm's past it's surface.
Me 1. House 2 I think the score should be .
As a restless peace is resumed with no 14 , the rest of the season has been a generally harmonious affair with the odd squall.
A trip to see an amazing version of Alice in Wonderland at the Chichester Theatre went very pleasantly up to the point that Granny the girls and I were returning to the car. Phoebe my middle daughter humorously noted a hastily scrawled sign proclaiming that a car had been spotted in the carpark with it's car lights left on .
Phoebe wryly commented how lucky that the number plate given had one different numeral than ours , we all chortled in agreement as we moved to the exit . The chances of such a slight number difference on another car slowly started to compute as we increased speed , me pulling ahead in a semi run , thrusting old age pensioners and small children from my path !!
As we feared , The Big Blue Bus of Fun was lit up like Times Square hoarding beginning to weaken before our eyes . However to quote a suitable theatrical phrase "luck was our lady that night "and the old girl spluttered into life on the first key turn .
I have been eyeballing the crack above the fireplace ,daring it to expand ,when the house expanded its campaign by springing a leak in the spare toilet , this out flanking manoeuvre was quickly parried with a tightening of a couple of bolts and disaster was apparently averted !
Flushed with success at my D.I.Y skills, I ,in a brief lapse of concentration tried putting on boots in the hall using the hopping technique beloved of school boys of a slightly lesser build. To put no finer point on it , gravity won and my shoulder came to rest a couple of cm's past it's surface.
Me 1. House 2 I think the score should be .
As a restless peace is resumed with no 14 , the rest of the season has been a generally harmonious affair with the odd squall.
A trip to see an amazing version of Alice in Wonderland at the Chichester Theatre went very pleasantly up to the point that Granny the girls and I were returning to the car. Phoebe my middle daughter humorously noted a hastily scrawled sign proclaiming that a car had been spotted in the carpark with it's car lights left on .
Phoebe wryly commented how lucky that the number plate given had one different numeral than ours , we all chortled in agreement as we moved to the exit . The chances of such a slight number difference on another car slowly started to compute as we increased speed , me pulling ahead in a semi run , thrusting old age pensioners and small children from my path !!
As we feared , The Big Blue Bus of Fun was lit up like Times Square hoarding beginning to weaken before our eyes . However to quote a suitable theatrical phrase "luck was our lady that night "and the old girl spluttered into life on the first key turn .
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