Setting Her Sights accepted to American Women Artists Show in Scottsdale

"Setting Her Sights has been accepted into the American Women Artists' 2015 National Juried Exhibition & Annual Member Show, hosted by Bonner David Galleries in
Scottsdale, Nov 12-30

Least Bittern at foundry and offered at precast pricing

I have finished the life-sized Least Bittern with green tree frog. I'm still pondering the title of the piece and the predicament of the little green frog but it is currently at the foundry getting the mold made before staring the arduous process of casting in bronze.

This sculpture is of a Least Bittern, smallest of the herons in the U.S., perched upon reeds. This is their common practice for feeding. These little birds are slow-moving and rather than wading like larger herons they take advantage of their smaller size by hiding among the grasses and reeds and perching motionless to hunt with their spearlike bills. Its prey are small fish, insects, freshwater shrimp and yes, frogs.

This Least Bittern sculpture measures about 14.75" high x 10.5" wide by 11" deep and will be cast in traditional bronze and have a shaped wood base. Currently being offered at pre-cast pricing starting at $2100*. The retail price will be $2800 in a limited edition of 20.

*Precast pricing is the practice of offering to sell the first of a limited edition of bronze before the offical release date at a discount to help offset the costs of producing a bronze edition.
I am offering the following pre-cast discounts:
25%  discount on #1 of 20
20%  discount of #2 of 20
15%  discount of #3 of 20
10%  disount of #4 of 20
5%    discount of #5 of 20
Sculptures must be purchased prior to the release date of July 31st. 50% down to pace the order, 50% upon delivery of the sculpture. Money back gurantee on my work. Foundry time is 9-12 weeks from placement of order to delivery of finished bronze.

Email or call to place your order.

Portrait commission

Since my return from the sculpture class in Scottsdale, I've been working on a portrait bust commission. Can't post many photos now, was commission is a surprise gift for my client's wife.

Once they have the completed bust I will be able to post full photos showing the process.

Life sized clay study of Least Bittern Bird

This is a life-sized clay study that I started at Sandy Scott's bird workshop at the Scottdale Artists School.

Sandy and the rest of the class were workin on an Arctic Tern but I chose to go with a closed-wing sculpture as I was going to be taking this back to my studio for further work and needed to be able to easily dismantle from the board and armature and box up as carry-on for my flight back to Colorado. Working with a pose like this made it possible to transport rather easily with minimal damage.

I also chose this bird as it is a wader and I had some ideas for placing it within reeds and wanted to work out my own ideas for casting and basing.

This sculpture measures about 12.5" tip to tail and 5.5 wide and is sculpted in Chavant's Le Beau Touche oil based clay.

Sculpting the bas relief demostration tutorial part 8 - finishing the work

A bout with the flu and two small portrait commissions have kept me away from this sculpt. Now I'm feeling better and the sculptures have been shipped to Australia and it's back to work.

This relief had some drying and cracking in areas that I had to cut away and put fresh clay into. Always a risk with water-based clay when you leave a project to rest for a while. So after repairing some areas I went back into refine the flowers and then soften with a bit of water. After that, I decided to add some additional hair to the right side of her face to improve the overall composition of this piece.

While that was setting up a bit, I went into the dress to add some detail - first a hint of bodice then texture and some pleating. Finally a small bow for interest.

With some additional touchups and work in the new hair area, I finally finished up the sculpture. I would prefer to mold it right away but my schedule doesn't have the time required for multiple coats of mold rubber and this is a process that simply can't be interrupted. So it looks like I will have to spray this up well, lay it flat with several layers of plastic to try to keep it from drying too much and wait for Monday to give the mold-making process my full and undivided attention.

My next tutorial will be the process of making the mold and mother-mold for this sculpture.

Sculpting the Bas Relief demonstration tutorial part 6

 My sister sewed up some sleeve protectors for me. My studio gets quite cold and I'm often wearing jackets and sweaters, which drag in the clay and get dirty. I drew up a quick idea and she sewed a sample set for me. They go over the tops of my sleeves and the elastic keep the cuffs of my clothes from getting into contact with the clay. Works great - will make the next set a tad longer.

Now that most of the relief has the forms in place and I feel confident of the anatomy of the arm, it's time to rough in the sunflowers that she'll be holding. It's important to sculpt the arm even though it is covered up because if you cheat on the anatomy, it will look off - people won't be fooled. So you don't have to bring that area to finish but the anatomy should be solid and convincing.

I begin by working the stem shapes and placing the largest forms of the sunflowers and then start to refine the shapes. The clay will need to set up a bit before I work the petals and leaves. I plan to do them in a loose manner to keep the focus on the girl.

Next I take a homemade brush made from broom twigs and crosshatch all the forms to homogenize them a bit.

 

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial Part 5

The sculpting demonstration tutorial by Lori Kiplinger Pandy continues with a push and pull of the clay forms.
I am continuing to build up the highest planes and the remove clay from the receeding areas. Throughout this process I turn the sculpture from side to side and stand on a step stool to view from above or squat down to look from below.

You must constantly be aware that this is not a painting, viewed simply from straight on, it is a sculpture and will be viewed from different angles.

After a period of working, I'll wet the clay a bit and use a home-made brush to crosshatch over the entire sculpt to knock down areas and blur some edges - this helps me to see how the forms are taking shape overall and to blend

the clay a bit.
Once the clay has had a chance to rest a bit, I'll step back and review the sculpture as a whole and evaluate it's progress before I proceed to working again on the sculpt.
You'll see that I started to rough in the owl in the background - it is imperative that you keep bringing each area up to the same amout of finish as the rest - having one area of scupt leap too far ahead of other areas causes distortion and usually results in having to rework large areas of your sculpture.

I will be visiting galleries for potential partners during the next week so it will be a little while before I post the next section of this tutorial.

In anticipation of my absence, I have sprayed the clay, double wrapped it in plastic and taken the entire board off the easel to lay it flat on a table. I don't want the moisture in the clay to migrate from the top due to gravity and cause uneven drying or warping, so placing it flat should keep it stable until I can return to work.

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial part 4

Here I am continuing to to add clay and build up the forms. It's very important to remember to turn your bas relief as you work, just as you would a sculpture fully in the round.

It's tempting to spend a lot of time in an area - but if you fail to work on all areas in equal amounts, you'll stop for a cup of coffee and come back to discover vast amounts of distortion caused by overworking a single area.

By turning the sculpture from side to side, you'll see where areas will need to be built up or pushed back. As the work evolves, you'll need to constantly reassess the depth of each area. This is where a discerning eye and artistic license will come into play. This isn't a canvas with a drawing or painting and it isn't fully round....it is somewhere in between. You'll need to employ drawing-like techniques to give the illusion of depth to some areas and that fine line can only be found as the sculpture

progresses.

As you can see here - I have determined how far out I want my high relief to protrude and as I work, I swivel the work from side to side to see it in profile to determine how far to build out the torso and the arms.

Don't be afraid to cut into the work. At this stage I cut off both her arms to allow access to the torso when I determined that it needed to be filled out more and brought further forward in the relief. That is part of the process.

Again, as you work, keep bones and flesh in mind - this will help keep your forms fresh as you work.
When taking a break from the work, as this is water-based clay, it must be wrapped up. I have found many ways of wrapping, but my favorite has become to simply mist the

sculpt and cover with plastic drop-cloth that I purchase by the roll. I like that I can cut it to size for the project and clings to the edges of the wood securely and helps to maintain the moisture until the next session.

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial part 3

Now that the clay is on the board and set upright on the easel and the image has been drawn onto the clay, it's time to start adding volume and mass to to image.

I begin by quickly blocking in the shapes - not trying to accuracy or likeness at this point - simply bring up the shapes to the highest point (in this case, the time of the nose and bottom of the skirt).

Always keep structure and anatomy in mind while you are working. Think in terms of bone and muscle. I'm not worried about surface features at all at this point - there will be time for that later.
Try not to become fixated on any part of the image. It's a trap to spend a lot of time working on face and neglecting other areas of the sculpture. Trust me, it never works out and when you finally do bring the rest of the sculpture up to the same level of finish as the face you'll find terrible problems with anatomy and distortion.

That said - I do begin with the face and keep coming back to it, as that sets the tone and emotion of the entire work.

As I said in Part 2, the drawing is going to be obliterated once you begin the actual sculpting. Clay is fluid - it moves while you work and you should never be afraid of cutting a sculpture apart and making changes as needed.

I decided that sculpt needed more tilt and attitude to the head, so I simply took a wire cutter, looped it under her chin and sliced her face off. Easy Peasy

Once her face was removed, I simply tilted the angle a bit and re-attched the face and reworked the neck. Then I set about roughing in more of the anatomy and continued to build up forms.

Cheats, Thiefs and New Bas Reliefs

 Cheating and stealing are sad facts of life. Unfortunately it happens to artists all the time. I'm currently having to decide if it is worth the cost of an attorney to go after a company that I have worked with in the past for theft of royalties on my work.....

While at the Loveland Sculpture in the Park show in August a number of people politely asked if they could take photos of my work on display. 90% were lovely people who enjoyed my work and wanted to take a picture of my Danny Kaye sculpture because it made them smile - of photos of my new bas relief sculptures because it reminded them of their daughter or granddaughter. And I gave them permission because they asked nicely and they honestly told me their intentions.

But the one that makes my blood boil is the smarmy man who strode into my booth and snapped away photos of my work while I was talking with another visitor. When I turned to approach him he gave me a look out of the corner of his eye and quickly swooped up close to these reliefs for one last photo before darting out of my booth.

He was up to no good and will likely be stealing something from my work - I've encountered his kind before and it is a sad fact of the business that people do this.

So, for you art lovers out there, please be polite when at art shows. Ask before you take photos. Most artists will let you take a photo if you ask, but this is how we make our living - so we must try to be careful at the same time. Not to bash on any countries out there - but there are a few that notoriously steal images from artists and set up sweatshops to produce cheap knock-offs of our work.

Rant over. So here are the two new reliefs that got a lot of attention at the Loveland Sculpture in the Park show. They measure 18" x 24" each and are made of Forton (polymer modified fiberglass reinforced gypsum). Think of it as plaster on steroids. Forton is lighter than plaster, much stronger, especially with the fiberglass, and weather resistant. These are properly sealed and can be displayed outdoors and weigh about 7 lbs each.

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

Frederick Douglas Bust fired - introducing Clay Sketches

My historical portrait bust of abolitionist Frederick Douglass fired perfectly and is awaiting the patina stage later this week. In the mean time, before I start my next "Mystery Sculpt" I thought I would introduce you to my Clay Sketches.

While I love to draw, I find that my ideas for sculpture germinate more fully when I sketch in 3D. So I will create a loose sculpture in clay (oil or ceramic) that captures what I am trying to portray. Sometimes I will make several of the same idea with different twists. In this way I can work out balance issues (so important in sculpture), clothing and nuances of gestures.

So - here is the "sketch" of Frederick Douglass. The finished fired piece is in the background. The fired portrait is 16" tall (clay shrinks as it dries and further shrinks when fired).

The sketch is 4.5" tall. It will likely be about 4" tall when dried and fired - make it roughly 1/5 scale to actual fired portrait.

I personally love to the loose, painterly look of sketches. Don't let the term sketch fool you into thinking not finished - it is, but in a more free and sometimes more artistically pure fashion as I don't overwork these pieces.

I will finish drying and firing this sculpture - and I will begin to offer a series of sketches for sale. It will be nice to offer original, finished sculptures for a low entry price point -  I'll make an announcement when they become available. Each one will be an original. I may have several sculpts of the same individual due to the fact that I'm making small changes to find the right look - but each one will be a unique and separate work.

Mystery Sculpt continued - blocking in the clothing

The mystery person is taking shape. I began to rough in the clothing. The head was quite heave so I cut off the top and did some early hollowing. I will need to hollow much more next week when it firms up. It's tempting to finish more, but I know that the process of cutting the sculpt open, hollowing out and reassembling will invariably lead to some damage, so I'll resist finishing it much more until the piece is leather hard and ready for that phase.
Since I was using us some Slab and Sculpture clay, I didn't have any more of that particular clay to finish the clothing. I was able to get something quite similar called Tile and Sculpture from The Stone Leaf Pottery in Arvada, CO - a bit over an hour drive from my studio. The folks there were very helpful and I was able to get this clay (cone 10) and several other bags to try out on my next sculptures. While the heavy, sandy, groggy texture of this clay is nearly identical, the color is a bit darker red. That won't matter when I do the patina, however so isn't a concern.