I'm getting there

Although still a work in progress, I'm getting there with my relief of the standing figure. The challenge now is to avoid overly finishing. In other words, to know when to stop.

Edouard Lanteri's definitive book titled Modelling and Sculpting the Human Figure was originally published at the beginning of the last century. However, in the absence of masters left alive to teach, its contents are all the more relevant today. It has been republished in paperback by Dover Publications. 

In the book the author gives attention to modelling the relief and divides the relief form into low, half and high. My present work falls under the category of half relief. 

Edouard Lanteri has good advice on searching for the large planes and the avoidance of detail.

...Details, as numerous as they are useless, take away from the largeness of the work, and the public rejoices in this photographic sculpture and says: "How beautiful" where they ought to say: "How petty...How trivial".   

Happy Birthday Tristan

My youngest son Tristan is eighteen years old today. Here he is with a sculpture I made of him when he just eight months old. First, work in progress and second the plaster cast of the finished sculpture.

Of all my seven children only one has followed in my footsteps, that being my son Karl who is a potter. Believe it or not, I've even brought a Chartered Accountant into this world! This begs the question posed below in one of my favourite cartoons. Maybe my grandchildren will one day even the score.

The Ghost of Sculpture Past

My way of coping with lock-down frustrations is to carry on creating. 

I desperately need to get back to painting but under present restrictions artists' models are not considered an essential service. I've tried working without but deprived of direct reference to the live model the results are a failure. I stand a slightly better chance with sculpture. In lieu of the real thing, I am surrounded by three dimensional figures from the past that were modelled from life, together with measurements and notes that I made from each model. The end result is a compromise, but better than doing nothing at all.

The ghost of sculpture past greeted me this morning as I was preparing to begin work on a relief similar to the one of Naomi that I featured two days ago. There, on the support I use for reliefs, was the ghostly imprint of an earlier torso.

On the same support there now stands the beginnings the latest addition to my Daughters of the Caribbean Sun. First the outline sketch and then the first steps in modelling the form. The figure is approximately half life-size.

You must believe in Spring

Over the last few weeks I have increased the frequency of posts to cater for the increase of my followers since the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill. Previously my audience comprised mostly of artists and art students. It now extends to the public at large: to new followers in the Philippines, Turkmenistan and seventy other countries around the world. 

My controversial sculptures Reflection and You Must Believe in Spring  were intended for the cancer wing of a new hospital in the UK. Both represented life's renewal and at this point in time the message is apt for us all.   

 You Must Believe in Spring

Go to pages 60-63 of the book Notes on the Nude for more background information on this sculpture.

On a lighter note, I came across this appropriate and true message on a blog that I follow.

With the patina of age

I ended my last post lamenting on the death of the plaster as against the life of the clay. My half life-size relief of Naomi dates from last year and the plaster cast that followed the clay sketch was a disappointment. (Go to back my post dated 19th August 1019 to see the clay sketch.)  But given time to reassess the work and giving the plaster cast time to begin to acquiring the patina of age - albeit less than a year - the end result begins to meet my expectations. I visualised the sculpture as being equivalent to the images of Saints that nestle in the niches of church walls - pure and simple. I can now see it fulfilling that role.

The sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was the master of the clay sketch, and in particular the female nude. Many of his pieces remained as plaster casts during his lifetime. It was not until more recent years that they were cast in bronze.

The bronze cast of a kneeling figure by Auguste Rodin

An almost forgotten sculptural process

A week ago I was pondering on the options and risks involved in taking a mold from my clay maquette.  Under my post titled "Everlasting Life" I took you through the stages of one option, that being making a plaster waste mold from the clay original. However, due to the small size and fragility of the sculpture, I looked at other possibilities. 

One alternative was a gelatin mold and another, a wax mold. Making a wax mold from a clay original is almost a forgotten process. I used it just once twenty years ago. In all of my books on sculpture there is only one brief mention of the technique. There is nothing on the internet...until now!

First a frame is built around the sculpture so as to enable it to be positioned in all directions when applying wax. A clay wall is also built around the base to collect the wax run-off. Metal tell-tale pins are set on the line along which the mold will be separated.

Casting wax is poured and brushed over the clay to a thickness of 1/8" to 1/4". Casting wax is harder than regular modelling wax. Metal and wood reinforcing is added to strengthen the mold and to prevent distortion. The mold is then separated by cutting through the wax with a modelling knife and the clay gently removed.

I used a soldering iron to weld the two halves of the mold back together again. Before pouring the plaster I filled the mold with water to check for leaks. These I stopped with softer modelling wax. The water also helps to determine how much plaster to mix. 

I left the plaster to set for two days before gently warming the mold and carefully peeling away the wax. 

The above picture shows the plaster cast as it appeared when released from the wax mold. All the detail has been preserved. The separation line can now be filled and other small adjustments made. 

The difference in appearance between the clay and plaster reflects the truth of the saying: clay is the life, plaster the death and bronze the resurrection. 

There's a revolution brewing in the arts

Fifteen years ago the paintings that illustrates this post would not have had a cat in hell's chance of being exhibited other than in the confines of my own studio. Now, thanks to the internet, my paintings and sculptures reach a worldwide audience. Currently these pages are being viewed in 121 countries, and that's not counting individual islands in the Caribbean. 

Pearl was a medical student here in Dominica when she modelled for these painting three years ago. She's now back home in Nigeria and in lock-down like the rest of us. As with all my models, I keep in touch. Her response to a recent email I sent with copies of some of her paintings was: Oh wow, how skinny I was!

A website titled "The only magic left is art" (https://www.theonlymagicleftisart.com/Manifesto) has this to say about the revolution that is brewing:

There is an invisible revolution going on right now. The old ways are being uprooted by a new generation of artists through social media. Ten years ago it was practically impossible to get exposure to a vast international audience without being sponsored by a high profile company. Now all of that has changed. Never before have we lived in a time when artists have an even playing field against the more privileged. Talent is finally becoming the backbone of success rather than nepotism. Money is irrelevant. Vision now has the power to go viral. We are entering an era of artistic equality in the creative stratosphere.

Here is another of Pearl's paintings.

Reverting back to Victorian times

Following on from my last post, the Corona Virus pandemic may find our beaches reverting back to the bathing machines of Victorian times.

The Irish author Walley Chamberlian Oulton notes in his 1805 "Traveller's Guide:

Four-wheeled carriages, covered with canvas, and having at one end of them an umbrella of the same materials which is let down to the surface of the water, so that the bather descending from the machine by a few steps is concealed from the public view, whereby the most refined female is enabled to enjoy the advantages of the sea with the strictest delicacy.

Alas, no more five-second sketches of my refined models unashamedly skinny dipping. 

Little beaches for residents of little boxes

The Corona Virus will undoubtedly result in some new initiatives for the way we live our lives. But nothing could stretch the imagination further than the idea of dividing beaches into segregated Plexiglas boxes. This surely calls for a new verse to be added to the "Little Boxes" that Pete Seeger sang about in the 1960's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUwUp-D_VV0

Recently little boxes have made their appearance on my island in the Caribbean and those that once had house and land of their own cannot now step beyond their front door during lock-downs. The closing pages of my book Townscapes has more to say on this development.

In a recent message, my daughter in the UK says that she considers herself fortunate: she still has her loved ones and her job. Many have lost both. I also consider myself fortunate. No one can deprive me of my work and twice a day, no one can prevent me from bathing in the river that borders my land. My COVID-19 shield is lush tropical foliage rather than two metres of man-made environmentally unfriendly Plexiglas.

To add more would be less

Knowing when to stop applies to the clay sketch just the same as it does to a water colour. There comes a point, usually quite early in the creative process, when to add more would be less. The secret is to suggest, rather than to define detail. My quarter life-size clay sketch of the figure has reached that stage, and maybe even gone beyond it. 

What you see in these pictures is the figure in its final form. I now have to make a mold from the clay. If it goes wrong, I risk loosing all.

Photographs of work in progress are useful in highlighting faults. Whereas the eye wanders over the form, the photograph mercilessly arrests it at one particular point. It's not so much finding fault with detail but in form and symmetry. For example, in the above photograph I notice that the left breast is slightly out of balance with its neighbour on the right. Having said that, my female followers know that breasts are not always symmetrical!

The sculptor Rodin, on early photographs of his work in progress, sometimes inked in adjustments that needed to be made.    

A trick I could always live by

Bruges, Belgium

My post dated 12th April titled, "How it all began" mentions the sketches that were the "songs for our supper". The above pencil drawing made on the canal side in Bruges is the only one that has remained in my collection. Hundreds of others were sold to survive; on the pavement and direct from my sketchbook.

To pluck up courage and declare myself an artist through dire necessity wasn't easy. Laurie Lee in his book, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning expresses what he felt in similar circumstances.

Presently I got up and dressed, stuck my violin under my jacket and went out into the streets to try my luck. It was now or never. I must face it now, or pack up and go home. I wandered about for an hour looking for a likely spot, feeling as though I was about to commit a crime. Then I stopped at last under a bridge by the station and decided to have a go. 

I felt tense and shaky. It was the first time, after all. I drew the violin from my coat like a gun. It was here, in Southampton, with trains rattling overhead, that I declared myself. One moment I was part of the hurrying crowds, the next moment I stood nakedly apart, my back to the wall, my hat on the pavement before me, the violin stuck under my chin. 

When I'd finished the first tune there was over a shilling in my hat: it seemed too easy, like a confidence trick. But I was elated now; I felt that wherever I went from here, this was a trick I could always live by.

To this day I am never happier than when on the pavements practicing that trick. It has taught me far more than what I would have learnt had I gone to art school.

Everlasting life

Work in progress on my 1/4 scale maquette

The sculpture that I began in my last post is intended as a maquette (model) from which I will attempt a life-size version in hand-made paper. The maquette itself could also be cast in bronze. Either way, it cannot remain for long in clay. The initial clay form is transitory. If left, it will eventually turn to dust. It's one thing saying "let there be life" and another to preserve that new-born life.  

For it to have everlasting life it has to be converted into a more permanent material. Taking a plaster cast from the clay is the first step in the process. Although the clay sketch can be created in the heat of the moment, making a mold and taking a plaster master cast from the mold is a long and complicated business. Furthermore, all could be lost if anything goes wrong. 

My regular readers have followed this process many times over. But for those who have come aboard recently here are pictures of a waste mold being taken from my life-size reclining figure of Annabelle. You can follow the work in progress on this sculpture by going back into my blog archives from January 8th to April 9th 2017. 

Making a waste mold for a complex quarter life-size figure is all the more intricate and challenging - as you will see in the days to come.

The final form in clay.

Brass shims have been added to divide the mold.

 A thin coat of tinted plaster is flicked over the figure.

A thick layer of plaster and metal reinforcing is added.

The mold is opened and the clay removed.

Plaster is poured into the assembled mold and then the mold is chipped away to reveal the cast. Both the original clay and the plaster mold are destroyed in the process.  

The finished plaster cast.

Let there be life

       

The sculpture based on the sketch I posted two days ago has begun to show the first signs of life. By making the figure quarter life-size I can work rapidly. I began work after breakfast and by mid-day the clay was already taking shape. Now that I have created life the challenge will be keep the figure alive. The secret is to suggest rather than define detail. 

My second challenge, due to the current Corona Virus restrictions, will be to complete the figure without reference to a live model. The human figure is the most complex structure in all creation - and the most beautiful. Without the model I cannot second guess the subtle changes that occur from one position to the next.

Below is the aluminium wire armature on which I formed the clay. To give you an idea of scale, the base plate measures 7" x 9".

My followers are increasing by leaps and bounds

Up to the advent of the Corona Virus my regular followers were artists and art students. Now my audience has increased dramatically in terms of general interest, indicating that art has therapeutic role to play in these difficult times. Some newcomers are catching up by delving back into the archives of this blog and others are content to follow my daily updates. Whichever way, welcome to my way of seeing and depicting beauty that many never give a second glance to.

Today's opening picture is a case in point. It shows the odds and ends of handmade paper left over from my recent sculptures. These I have now recycled into more paper for more sculptures. With sculpture in mind, rather than drawing or print making, I have left the sheets to dry without restraint and to curl just as leaves do when they fall from the tree.

I started notesforartstudents.blogspot.com years ago specifically for CXC Visual Art students in Dominica. At that time my followers were few and far between. But thanks to the Corona Virus it is also beginning to attract a world-wide audience. Hence, its present resurrection.

My models are in lock-down

Corona Virus restrictions mean that all of my models, whether here in Dominica or elsewhere in the world, are currently in lock-down. However, having spent a lifetime working from the live model and having the results of my labours preserved in thousands of paintings and sketches, I can carry on regardless. 

This painting is one that I made recently as a preliminary sketch for a piece of sculpture. Along with other sketches on a similar theme - some dating back over thirty years - I am now prepared the clay in readiness for putting the idea into practice.

With the nude figure there's nothing new under the sun. The sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) found inspiration for the nude in dance. Had yoga been more widely practiced in his day I am sure many of the poses, such as the one shown in my sketch, would have featured in his work.

Kneeling Nude. Auguste Rodin

Take the kinks out of your mind, not your hair!

Take the kinks out of your mind, not your hair. (Marcus Garvey).

Dominica is doing quite well in battling with the Corona Virus and it seems that under our current State of Emergency some restrictions may soon be relaxed. But just when I thought the Afro might make a comeback it seems that we may soon see the re-opening of hair salons, manicure and pedicure parlors and barbershops.

As a reminder to the fashion conscious, the Afro epitomized the 1960's black is beautiful movement. It represented a celebration of black beauty and a repudiation of foreign beauty standards. The style is unique to those of African descent and complements the facial features far better than shaved heads and straightened hair.

As a painter and sculptor, I remain committed to depicting the all-natural God given beauty of the Afro-Caribbean...Afro, Cane/Corn-row, Braids, Bantu knots and all.

The end of one love affair and the beginning of another.

From the 1970's and through the 1980's my love affair was with the islands. But my lover was soon seduced by others who saw her beaches, landscapes and townscapes as Caribbean real estate ripe for development. 

The Virgin Island poet Sheila Hyndman (1958 -1991) expresses the impending change in her poem To Virgin Gorda.

They will come
with tools and machines.
They will bring to light your secret places,
They will demand your mysteries,
They will destroy,
Build up.
They will dilute your treasures
and rob you of your chastity.
They will adorn you like ancient Jezebel. 

In those days my studio was wooden shack alongside an idyllic cove. The above painting was made from the beach below my studio. The ruined house on the headland was my retreat and the painting below was made in its overgrown grounds.

The house is now a palatial residence and I no longer have the freedom to wander through its grounds, nor can my boat lie in the secluded anchorage, for the idyllic cove is now a crowded marina.

But as one love affair ended, another began. 

The hundreds of paintings and scores of sculptures in my series " Daughters of the Caribbean Sun" owe their origin to another of Sheila's poems, which begins:

I am a daughter of the Caribbean Sun
Grown out of the soil of the Virgin Isles.
Molded by the salt of coral filled seas
and smoothed by the touch of the Trade Winds.

Thank you Sheila for being my mentor, muse and true friend. 

   

Set me free!

It's not me that's begging to be set free - I accomplished that sixty years ago - but the medium I am working with. The life-size sculptures that I am creating from fiber-rich handmade paper are not meant to imitate those made from bronze, plaster or marble. The material has an identity of its own and it would be pointless trying to make it conform to something it is not. It can best expressive its uniqueness when allowed to be itself.

The opening picture shows the front view of my most recent sculpture. It was molded on the plaster life-cast shown at the end my recent post Growing Old and Working My Way Up From The Bottom. 

The picture below shows the reverse side of the finished sculpture. This illustrates the possibilities of "two sides to the coin", something that cannot be achieved in other sculptural media.

If we now look in detail at the colours and textures the dramatic possibilities become apparent.

The finished sculpture measures 22" x 12" x 5" and weighs less than two ounces. In places it is almost transparent but its apparent fragility belies its strength and permanence. Remember, the fibers within the stem of a banana plant are also used to reinforce car tires! 

I now need to begin making paper specifically with sculpture in mind. For fine art papers I strive for sheets of an even thickness and for them dry flat. If left alone my handmade paper curls as it dries, just as an autumn leaf curls when it has fallen from the tree.

Perhaps the paper is also begging to be set free.