Eleanor wins 1st Place Sculpture and Purchase Award Scottsdale...

"Eleanor" was chosen by the judges as First Place in Sculpture for this year’s Best & Brightest Show at Scottsdale Artists School. It was also chosen by the school to be this year’s Purchase Award.

This honor is especially poignant for me because I received a scholarship from the Scottsdale Artist's School to attend a Sandy Scott workshop in 2015 and while there I would sneak into the school early just to peruse the halls, admiring the works on permanent display, photographing them with my iPad and thinking that I would love to have one of my works in those halls one day.

I am grateful that "Someday" came today.

Show opens Friday 1/8/2016 with a free and open reception from 5-7pm and runs through 2/27/2016.

Scottsdale Artists’ School
3720 North Marshall Way
Scottsdale, AZ 8525

Danny Kaye, Eleanor Roosevelt, awards, sales and catching up

I'm way behind in blogging due to preparing for the Loveland Sculpture in the Park. I have been in the Loveland Sculpture Invitational for 3 years but this was my first year at the Sculpture in the Park show and it was a wonderful experience.

"King of Jesters" tribute sculpture to Danny Kaye was a big hit at the Sculpture in the Park show.  Most people knew who he was immediately and were excited to share their stories about how Danny Kaye's movies or work at Unicef were important to them. Especially sweet was to see how many teenage girls were familiar with him - so his legacy lives on. Hope his daughter, Dena Kaye, knows this....

In other news, my original ceramic portrait sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt won Award of Merit at the American Women Artists 17th Annual Nation Show and then sold at the Addison Gallery.

#1 of 50 forton cast edition of Eleanor Roosevelt is currently still on display at the National Sculpture Society Awards show being held at Brookgreen Gardens.

Lastly, "Waiting on the #9" bronze sold at the Loveland Sculpture in the Park show in August too. It was a special sale to a very nice man who fell in love with her on Saturday, kicked himself all the way home from the show and came back on Sunday to get her - stories like that, where your work touches somebody, makes it so worth it.

"Eleanor" selected for National Juried Show

"Eleanor" was selected for the American Women Artists 17th Annual Competition at the Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA. I'm especially pleased because I really loved getting to 'know' Eleanor as I worked and I am very happy to share her with others.

Eleanor Roosevelt sculpted portrait sketch finished

 Here is the finished sculpt - started as Mystery Sculpt #2. This is a small scale sketch in clay (called a maquette) that I'll use as reference when sculpting a life-sized portrait sculpture later.

This was created using ceramic paperclay, hollowed out and seamed back together, then fired in a kiln. The patina is layers of transparent acrylic glaze and the sculpt is mounted on a double round back wood base.

"Eleanor"
Measures 7.5"h x 5"w x 6" deep.
Portrait sculpture bust of Eleanor Roosevelt

Mystery Sculpt #2 revealed: Eleanor Roosevelt portrait bust

 Mystery Clay Sketch Sculpt #2 Finished.

This clay sketch is about 5.5-6" tall and is a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt. The clay is a ceramic paperclay called Max's Clay. The paperclay has interesting properties but it doesn't tool very well in a subtractive manner - the paper drags, clumps and clogs your tools - especially rake tools.

It does additive work much better and is very versatile.

This sketch has been hollowed and is drying for firing later - then I will use the sketch as the basis for a larger sculpture - possibly in a porcelain clay.

New Mystery Sculpt - a clay sketch maquette

Back by popular demand it's a new Mystery Sculpt. This time I'll be sculpting a clay sketch (maquette) that may serve as a model for a full sized portrait later. I sometimes sculpt several of the person to work out issues of pose or clothing before doing a final work.

There are some photos of beginning the sculpt, which since is a sketch, is small....currently about 5" tall at this stage. I roughed in a basic skull and then began laying in some forms. And them my camera battery died.

So there is large jump from one phase to the next while the camera charged ;-)

I'll continue to work on this today and post final photos later.

Any guesses as to who this will be?

I'm sculpting this portrait using Max's Paperclay - ceramic clay.