Accepted to the Sculpture in the Park and other shows

It's been a good week for shows. First, I'm quite thrilled to announce that I have been accepted to the 31st Annual Sculpture in the Park show held in Loveland, Colorado, August 8-10.

Accepted to Sculpture in the Park...

While I have loved exhibiting at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational these past 3 years - I'm very excited to be accepted into the Loveland Sculpture in the Park show this year....it's good to try new things and I wish both shows continued success. You can't go wrong either way - they are both the pinnacle of outdoor sculpture shows in the US!

http://www.sculptureinthepark.org/

************

I'm also honored to announce that two of my sculptures are in the Women Artists of the West's upcoming show:

"Fierce & #9 Both Selected...

Both "Fierce and "Waiting on the #9" have been selected for “WAOWed in San Diego”, 44th Annual Women Artists of the West National Juried Exhibition at the Women’s Museum of California, San Diego, CA. The submissions were highly competitive once again this year.

************

And lastly,

"Eleanor", "Fierce", "The Orator" selected for show....

Three of my portraits were accepted to the online Portrait juried contest WAOWed by the Portrait and can be viewed on the website.

Using the proportional calipers - a lot!

 Clay is so malleable that it moves constantly while you are working. If you spend more than 30 minutes in any given area you are practically guaranteed that you'll be ripping off that work later when you find mistakes. You must step back and turn your work constantly - no zoning out on one small section because as the clay moves it effects other areas and distortion sets in.

I'm constantly grabbing my trusty proportional calipers and double checking my measurements. While work like this figure is a figment of my imagination and I have no actual model standing there to reference, I do refer to anatomy books, charts and a life-sized skeleton that I keep in my studio.

Additionally I will sometimes take measurement of myself as a general guide - if my sculpture is an adult female, that is. Naturally that won't work if I'm sculpting a man.

Here I am taking a measurement of my forearm near my wrist using the larger end of the calipers. I'm working roughly at 1/4 life size (this sculpt is about 16" tall - 16" x 4 = 64" tall, or about 5'4" tall. I'm about 5'5" so I'm a good fit for measuring this particular sculpt). I have the the calipers set to 1/4 scale.

Now I simply flip the calipers around and use the smaller side to measure my sculpture's wrist. I do this often as I work to be sure the proportions are working.

Feminizing the forms - more blocking in of muscle mass

 Today I began to refine the muscle shapes and feminize the entire figure. I gave some basic contouring and features to the face and continued blocking in the muscles and forms of the body.

I must say that I am really enjoying the Clayette clay by Chavant - creamy without being too sticky.

Continuing to block in the musculature

 I continued blocking in the musculature today. I laid in the basic muscle shapes over the skeleton and then began to put in the beginnings of the face. It's hard to stop at this stage because I can start to see the sculpt taking shape and want to continue.

However, taking a break for dinner and sleep is advisable. When you look at the sculpt again first thing in the morning after some time away you can see areas that need work or correction. Not rushing things always makes better art - but I'll be the first to admit that it's very tempting to put in the artistically pleasing things, like details and hair, long before it is time to do so.

Patience and persistence really pays off. If the sculpt looks good without all the extras, then it's stronger and more beautiful overall.

Laying in some muscle mass - continuing the work on building the figure

 Sorry I skipped a step - I photographed the last of the skeleton but the photos didn't come out well enough to post. So here I have finished the simple skeleton and have progressed into laying in some of the major muscle masses.

As the finished sculpture is not an ecorche study, I am not concerned with making every muscle with attachments and origins. My goal is to lay in the shapes and forms of the muscles that most effect the surface.

I am using Chavant's Clayette in Hard for the skeleton and hands and Clayette Medium for the muscle mass. I will also use the hard for the face and hair as this is a small scale piece.

You'll notice that the hands look a bit big in the beginning. This is because there is little muscle - mostly bone and tendons in the hands and feet whereas the legs and arms have a lot of muscle and fat. When you strip the figure of a lot of the muscle and fat - the hands will look larger in proportion to the overall figure. As I flesh out the rest of the figure you'll see the hands and feet will look more normal with the larger forms of the legs, arms and body to balance things out.

My husband just walked by and wondered aloud if all this skeleton and muscle work was necessary and wouldn't it be easier and faster just to glob it on? Short answer - yes and no. Sometimes I do just jump straight to large masses (outer form of skin) and quickly set things up. But taking the long road (bones and muscles) does things for a piece of art that just can't be achieved any other way.

Building up the form of the figure

I'm continuing to build up the forms in this water-based clay sculpture that is based off of my tiny maquette, "Loss". I cut off the arms and removed the wire armature as they were drying out too quickly - that then started to place the arm shapes back into place with toothpicks to bolster them until the clay firms up a bit. 

The clay is old and isn't the best to work with. Seems like I buy clay - then another deadline hits and I store it too long - and it loosed the placsticity a bit. Nevertheless, I will continue to refine the sculpture and add the hands next. On a different note, I've been accepted to the Loveland Sculpture Invitational again this year and will be working hard to have new works for the show in August!

Sold - Harriet Tubman in bronze

This weekend was the Loveland sculpture Invitational held in Loveland, Colorado. While quite hot on Friday and Saturday, it was a comfortable on Sunday.

I had a very good response to my sculptures and was especially glad that I paid the rush fees to get my bust of Harriet Tubman finished in time for the show, as she seemed to be a favorite not only of mine, but of the people that viewed her at the show.

I have named the bronze of Harriet  #1 of 9 edition- "Fierce", as she was indeed fierce, brave and very smart. She's been carefully packed and is en route to the collector in Kansas City, Mo.

A new order for the #2 of 9 of "Fierce" will be going in next week.

Now that the show is over, I'm going to take a few days off for some much needed family time before starting back up in the studio on Monday, Aug 20th.

Revising works in progress - portraits in clay for bronze

I refined the maquette of "The Pageturner". A lot of the work was done listening to the Wendy Woo concert at the CSU Lagoon Concert Series, where I sculpted at the show.

Surprisingly, this clay is also Chavant LeBeau Touche. This clay, however is light in color, which I much prefer to two reasons:
1) It's easier to see the shapes and shadows of forms
2) It doesn't stain everything

This clay was less sticky and responded much better than the terra cotta colored clay that I used for "Waiting on the #9". That leaves me to believe that the clay is quite nice, actually, and I simply must have had a bad batch for that earlier sculpt. This is still a bit soft, but had a much more lovely feel to it. This isn't an exact portrait of my daughter, but rather an impression of her: forever lost in her books and absently playing with her earrings or necklace and simply lovely in her quiet repose.

As you can see, it is quite small, but I rather like her as a tiny piece and may cast her as is and then enlarge to 1/2 life size later.

I also did some more work on the portrait of my daughter in water-based clay. After hollowing out too soon and suffering the consequences, I've got her nearly completed. The clay has firmed up nicely and I will put the finishing touches on her tonight and let dry before firing. This piece is life-sized, using CT3 clay.

Hollowing the clay bust

Good things come to those that wait. While I know this, sometimes I still rush things. Wanting to get the heavy, wet clay out of the portrait and to speed drying in hopes of firing this bust for the Loveland Sculpture Invitational, I proceeded to hollow out the sculpt before it was firm and dry enough. Result? The clay couldn't keep its shape and distorted, warped and cracked/broke in places.

I knew I could fix things, but I certainly made it more difficult for myself and conversely it will take longer to finish than if I had waited another day or two for drying. Note to self- learn patience.

First I took the wire that I had taped to support pole prior to adding clay and pulled it up and through the sculpture behind the ears. Next I pried the back of the head off and laid it on a pillow wrapped in plastic. The I hollowed out both sides of the head, preserving the interior clay of later use.
I did some damage to the face, which is easy to do when the clay is too soft. I also found that there was heavy distortion when I reassembled the clay that required additional work to correct.

The sculpt has been repaired and nearing completion - will post new photos soon.

Metal chasing Harriet Tubman and Waiting on #9

Busy week preparing for the Loveland Sculpture Invitational next week. There were some glitches in getting the two Ascensions ready - but I finally picked them up from Art Castings yesterday and they're beautiful. The bronzes for Harriet Tubman- Triumph and Waiting on the #9 were completed by Madd Castings and Bob Page did a fabulous job chasing them both quickly. Thanks, too, to Tessa Derbin for some great customer service in moldmaking and wax pouring. Both those pieces are now at patina specialist Dale Cisek's and should be completed on Monday and ready to go back to the Base Shop for the final basing.

 

Refining the pose

 I've been a bit preoccupied with the High Park Fire near here. It's been very smokey and some of our friends were evacuated. The fire is over 50,000 acres but the firefighters have been amazing and we're at 15% containment - if we could get some rain and a break from the winds....

We've spent the past two years renovating a little log cabin by the Poudre river in the mountains. We only just got the new well, pump and bathroom installed, not to mention all the work re-chinking and a huge amount of overall repair. Hoping it survives this fire.

So - on to work. Have I mentioned I'm not in love with this clay? Chavant makes wonderful products and Le Beau Touche is one of them - however it takes the right clay for the right job and my opinion is that this clay is wonderful for larger scale works. At 1/5 scale its too soft and creamy but I can see how those attributes would be delightful at a larger scale and much easier on the hands. I'm sure that I'll enjoy using it again when I work larger. For now, just trying not to squoosh all the hard work.

I've been refining all the areas that I had to recreate after the shipping disaster. You can see that I have taken her hand off to sculpt separately. I added a bit of wax to the clay to resculpt the hand to make it a bit firmer. Still working out some issues on the dress wrinkles and need to get her other sandal sculpted again. Have fallen way behind. My original goal was to have this finished and in bronze for the Loveland Sculpture Invitational, however with the major setback of having the resculpt without the model, well, that's simply not going to happen. Moldmaking takes several weeks and bronze another 10-12 weeks. How disappointing.

Ascension Traditional Bronze Patina

This is the traditional bronze patina on the same sculpture, Ascension. Interesting how the patina can change the look of a sculpture. They are both beautiful in different ways.

In other happy news, I'm happy to say that I was again selected to show my work at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational 2012 - so time to get back in the studio, finish those two waxes and get back to sculpting!

At the Loveland Sculpture Invitational Show...

Sculpting is calming and freeing for me. So I brought my working in progress, "Ascension", to the show to give me something to do.

Thanks for Mr. Tom Carter for snapping a couple of pix while at my booth today!

"Ascension" is getting a nice reception from the patrons and I'm really excited about finishing her next week and taking her down to Art Castings of Loveland to start the bronze process.

In the mean time, I was happy to find a new home for "Hint of a Smile" today. She was purchased by a lovely lady from Texas. It was satisfying to see her pass my booth, pause and declare, "She's mine!" Makes one feel really good to have created something that she really connected with.

The show is amazing, of course I've known that from visiting it, but from an exhibitor's prospective, I can see that it is beautifully run and the volunteers are the best.

Looking forward to what tomorrow's show brings!

Patinas and bases

I didn't have enough time to set up and properly photograph the sculptures on their bases with the patinas prior to taking them to the show. But I did a rough shoot within 30 minutes, so while not great photos, at least it's something. Didn't get my white balance quite right but I will try to photo them later at my leisure...

Jet lag and sculptures are not a good combination...

 Bummer.....I'm seriously exhausted, having just returned from Europe and having hubby and daughter sick. I picked up my little gymnast to pack her up for the auction at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational this weekend and dropped her.

While ceramic sculptures can be quite sturdy, this was a wicked drop. I wouldn't mind so much, but I was counting on donating her for the auction and I had just put had the sculpt mounted to this nice stone base. Well, I might be able to salvage the base for future use.

At least I didn't smash any others yet ;-)

I got the rest of them down to the show and will finish the final set-up tomorrow. Then I can post some photos of the booth at the show later.

Small scale full figure gymanst in water based ceramic clay

 In order to help the clay firm up and dry out a bit - plus to make it easier for the sculpt to hold its own weight, I cut her up to hollow out more. Although I did use a small bit of newspaper to bulk out her core, I find that in sculpting and moving the position around, there areas can build up thick in some areas. Surprisingly, this one was pretty symmetrical.


I removed some more of the clay from the core and the pelvis region. Once the clay firmed up

more, I was able to reattach her and continue sculpting.

Today she was strong enough to remove from the prongs that had been supporting the weight and stand on her own. I am working on finalizing her now.

Small scale full figure gymanst in water based clay

Time to start a new sculpt. This one will be a gymnast. It's currently measuring close to 9" tall is being sculpted using ceramic paperclay (CT3).

I started this same sculpt a couple of days ago using Chestnut - a highly grogged terracotta clay. The first attempt sagged so much that she kept having the weight press down on her legs and squash them. The clay is stiff and I had trouble getting it to twist when I wanted to move her pose a bit.

So after a day of modeling, carving, adding and fighting with it, I smashed it up and returned it to the bag for use in another project another day. Then I immediately started her all over again in the ceramic paperclay. This is much lighter and holds its shape on such a small scale, so I'm glad that I scrapped the first. I got twice as far in half the time on the second attempt.

The sculpt has an 'exterior armature', profiled in Bruno Lucchesi's books. The Chestnut clay was heavy and kept pulling out of the two prongs that are holding her weight. The papercaly is holding up better, but it may still need an internal rod added to her leg from under the base after firing to support the weight - time will tell. This sculpt has tiny fingers, so I'm hoping that it holds up well to sculpting and firing because in dance any gymnastics, the finger attitude means so much.

You can also see the hollowing that is going on. I rough in the shapes and then as the piece starts to dry and firm up, I can cut of the rough arms and head and hollow out and reattach. I've already hollowed her head and put it back on. The one arm is in place, the other is still off and drying a bit to be more firm.

The legs are still clunky because I really need to mass there to support in the early stages. Then I'll start to refine and take the forms down.

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay #7

 Making progress on the sculpt and generally pleased with her. There are some areas that need a bit more refining. The lighting is rather harsh because I just grabbed some quick pix in the studio. .

When she's fully completed I will set up the photo lights and get better photos,

I really enjoyed sculpting her and have titled this piece:

"Her  first dress rehearsal"

This was my first sculpture of a child and I have to agree with other people - kids are challenging. I did not work from a model which can add to the challenge of a piece as I try to imagine limbs in the round. The thing with children is their softness. It makes it hard to find the forms sometimes.

 This was so enjoyable that I'm certain that I'll be doing more dancers and hopefully gymnasts too.