Going Bananas

Since this photograph was taken we've eaten the bananas and the tree converted to handmade paper. The handmade paper was then converted to my sculpture of the life-size torso shown below.

Below is the clay sketch upon which the paper was laid. As with taken a plaster cast from clay, the original is lost in the process of removing the cast from the clay. Three layers of paper create an incredibly strong form at a total thickness of less than 1/16". 

It's Me!

The photograph is of me taken 76 years ago when parents saw nothing wrong in photographing their beloved offspring naked. 

In earlier times artists decorated their paintings and sculptures with putti (naked children, sometimes with angel’s wings) but I doubt if any artist would dare do it today, and certainly not as Titian did 500 years ago in his painting “Putti Cavorting in a Landscape”

Flaunting the sexual as against revealing the beauty

Photo Credit Dominica News on Line

Thirty years ago, through my work as a painter and sculptor, I attempted to extol the natural beauty of the Afro-Caribbean woman, unadorned by foreign concepts of beauty. To achieve my objective I had to go beyond Marcus Garvey’s plea to “take the kinks out of your mind, not out of your hair”.

The nude figure is less sexually provocative than one that is scantily dressed. After the initial shock of the nude, the eye takes in the beauty of the body as a whole rather than being drawn to the so called "private parts" tantalizingly hidden in the name of decency. I know that this is something that many people have difficulty getting their head around, but it is a fact. If I wanted my models to look sexy, I’d put them in a bikini and have them pose seductively, hand on hip.

The opening pictures are of this year's Dominica Carnival Queen contenders. They are all attractive young ladies and it's not their fault that they feel obliged to flaunt for the audience the sexual as against revealing their God given beauty. 

Elsewhere in the Caribbean my work once convinced the judges to give credit to natural appearance. And a few years ago one contender wrote in my visitor's book, "You have opened my eyes and mind to true beauty".

The sculpture shown below is of my model Verlena: the epitome of true beauty.

Searching for colours and textures

For using hand-made paper as a casting material for my sculptures I am for ever searching for new colours and textures from what grows around my studio. The Royal Palm grows in profusion, as can be seen in the above photograph of my driveway. But it's fronds have a prickly sharp center and are difficult to convert into paper. 

However, the results are worth the effort, especially as the colour comes close to some of the purple skin tones that I'm after.

Pudendum

This cast is taken from the clay sketch shown below. It indicates the potential of handmade paper - banana, sugarcane, pineapple and Royal Palm - as a medium for sculpture. Here are exciting possibilities in terms of colour and texture.

Pudendum Definition: The external genital organs, especially those of the female. From the Latin, “that whereof one ought to feel shame”.  

The full-figure

The painter Lucian Freud (1922-20110 had an obsession for models with flesh, and lots of it. 

If only I could be attracted to "the full-figure", or in Caribbean terminology "the thick figure", I would have plenty of choice for models. But try as I may, I cannot. This week I did try, as shown in the sketch below. I give credit to my model for also giving it a try.

Alas, too much Kentucky Fried Chicken, as against carrying bunches of bananas down steep hillsides, has converted many of the slender "Daughters of the Caribbean Sun" that I painted in earlier times into ample figures that would have done Lucian Freud proud.

Spewed out of the furnaces of Gomorrah

Page 80 in my book Notes on the Nude is headed Tame in Comparison to Rodin. It reads as follows:

Despite every effort to resist finish, my torso of Marcella is tame beside how Camille Lemonnier, Belgian, writer, poet and journalist, describes one of Rodin’s sculptures:

At the Maison d’Art there is a torso that seems to have been spewed out from the furnaces of Gomorrah. It has been savagely torn and splayed the way a fissure in the earth cracks open, as though a crucible were exploding in its depths.

But Marcella can quite literally claim to have brought down the curtain. The curtain in question being the neutral canvas backdrop that I judge my models against. One gust from the tropical trade wind and it was gone. But my models are made of tough stuff and I doubt that a hurricane would deter them. 

Perhaps the life-size torso that I've cast from handmade paper pulp comes closer to Rodin's torso. It was released from the mold prematurely, not by me but by the same tropical trade wind that brought the curtain down on Marcella. 

With shades of Jackson Pollack

My latest experiments in paper making have extended to throwing dyes onto a sheet while still in the mold. The result suggests shades of Jackson Pollack. The sheet size is 20" x 24".

The picture below shows the dyed sheet drying and alongside is one of my experiments of casting paper pulp in a mold. In this case the rear of a life-size torso. 

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was a leading figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement. His technique centered around throwing paint on canvas.

New Dimensions

Continuing from my previous post; the above picture shows the completed torso and the one below shows the surface finish.

Now that I found that it is possible to cast with hand-made paper I can explore new dimensions with my sculpture, in particular colour and texture. Furthermore, the raw materials - banana, sugar cane, pineapple, exotic grasses, palm and bamboo - grow in profusion right outside my studio.

Coincidentally, my handmade papers match my watercolours and hence the shades of my models.

Avert Your Eyes

In my last post I warned you that my mind was racing towards other sculptural possibilities of hand-made paper. The above picture shows work in progress in converting a portion of the cast of figure from plaster to paper. The sculpture that I have used as a form dates back to the mid 1990's and was my first attempt at a life-size figure. With the exception of the two images below, photographs of work in progress on the original have been lost on crashed computer hard-drives. Furthermore, I only retained the upper part of the plaster cast when I re-located my studio from England to the Caribbean.

It was an incident when work was in progress on the original that led me to title this post "Avert Your Eyes". My studio in the North of England had previously been a Church Assembly Hall and its dramatic features were listed with English Heritage. The listing protected the building from undesirable modification and church covenants on the sale of the building protected the building from undesirable usage. The covenants banned the sale of alcohol (but fortunately not the consumption) and lewd entertainment.  

My wife Denise modeled for the standing figure and while work was in progress a group of church elders asked if they might visit. On the day of their visit I draped the figure for fear that it might fall under the "lewd entertainment" category.

All went well until a lady, well into her eighties, began lifting the veil and asked, "What do we have here!" Before I could utter an explanation she had completely removed the covering. She then stood back and exclaimed, "This is beautiful!"

How I wish that all visitors to my studio could appreciate the beauty of the nude, as did that elderly lady. On occasions a decorous visitor - young rather than old - averts her eyes and departs the studio faster than she came in.  

In contrast to pictures of one of my earliest sculptures, the most recent pages of my book Notes on the Nude contain notes and images of two of my most recent. You will find the serialization of the book at notesonthenude.blogspot.com    

My harlequin dress-maker's mannequin

My dress maker's mannequin has developed into a multi-coloured sculptured harlequin. The colours originate from the various hand-made papers that I finally used to cover the wood, chicken wire and canvas armature. The pictures below show the work in progress.

Wood left. Wire Center, Canvas Right 

                                                                

      

The covering is a collage of scraps of various hand made papers shown in the picture below. This project has brought home to me the amazing strength of hand-made paper. Even sheets as thin as tissue paper are difficult to tear. My hands ache. 

And it is not only the strength of hand-made paper; its potential and versatility as a creative material has my mind is racing towards other possibilities.

Made in Dominica as against Made in the Far East

The shaping machine in today's picture did service during World War 2 and continues to do service - to an accuracy of 1/1000" - in my engineering workshop today. Like my fifty-year-old Land Rover, the chances are that it will still be going strong in another fifty years time. 

The same cannot be said for a succession of digital cameras and other electronic equipment that have been my lot over the past twenty years. The latest failure being a Nikon camera that my brother kindly purchased and hand delivered to my small Caribbean island less than a year ago. Not only did the Duracell rechargeable batteries leak but a minuscule metal contact for one of the of the batteries - deep inside the camera - broke in two!

Fortunately, like many of the Renaissance artists before me, as well as being as being a painter and sculptor I am also an inventive engineer and much of my time is spent making things "Made in the Far East" work in Dominica. 

Mitsubishi manual change gearboxes are a case in point. They contain a spherical bush that fails within a couple of years of the vehicle being on the road. Mitsubishi will not sell the part as a single item but only as a complete gear change assembly. In my workshop I've made hundreds replacement bushes that never fail. The non-original points in the distributor of my Land Rover failed within a few months and cost me the indignity and expense of being towed home. While waiting for genuine "Made in Great Britain" points to arrive I made replacement parts for an old Land Rover set and they are still going strong. 

As you might guess, I have now made a modified and improved replacement part for my camera. Needless to say, everything created in my workshop proudly bears the stamp "Made in Dominica"!

Whatever is that?

I predict that the next person that visits my studio and workshops will ask, "whatever is that?". The question will refer to the structure pictured above which shows work in progress on my latest project: a dress maker's mannequin. What you see is the armature; the next step is to build up the contours with wire mesh and fabric.

The mannequin relates to a fashion label that I created some years ago. The intention was keeping cool in the Caribbean and it featured a collection that ranged from classic evening dresses to swim wear. I named the label Bare Minimum.

A couple of hurricanes pushed the project onto the back burner. But each time I see young ladies dressed for autumn in New York rather than the heat in the Caribbean, I consider the label worth resurrecting.

Although I need live models for fitting my final creations, a mannequin serves well enough for the creative stage. In fact it can serve better because I can stick pins in a mannequin whereas I can't stick pins in my models. As a sculptor I have hundreds of measurements from scores of models and life-size casts in the studio to compare the mannequin against. I can therefore pick and choose bits from one or the other.

To keep me cool I make my own light weight cotton shirts and shorts, including making my own buttons . My latest creation being modeled on Marcella's torso.

Subtle Suggestions

The advantage of watercolours, if they are given the freedom they deserve, is to subtlety suggest rather than minutely define. Initially, I cast this painting aside but now I realise that it captured the mood of the moment.

My book “Notes on the Nude” says more about the sensuous subtleties of the nude. 

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves...

Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, 
We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!

The opening lines of Humbert Wolfe's poem sum up the weather we've been experiencing over the last few days here on my supposedly tropical island of Dominica. As you can see in the photograph, the river below my studio is in full flood, hence my ritual daily bathing is out of the question. 

As is also painting from my models. With temperatures down to the mid 70's it's too cold for that. Mind you, when my studio was in the North of England my models bravely worked in freezing temperatures from within a circle of blow heaters. The pictures below are of my life-size sculpture of Ganeen and dates from that period. Ironically, it is titled: You must believe in Spring!

Leonardo da Vinci would have felt at home

Leonardo da Vinci would have felt at home with me over the last week. Like him, I've had to put painting aside and concentrate on designing a float for a Carnival Queen contender, inventing a device for processing plantain for a poet and using my engineering expertise to make replacements parts for my fifty year old Land Rover. 

The following photographs tell the story.

Subtlety suggesting the sensuous

When it comes to subtlety suggesting the sensuous, the rapidly drawn line comes close to a watercolour wash that is thrown down in the heat of the moment. Both allow viewers to enter the creative process and draw their own interpretation.

The opening sketch was drawn on a postcard and posted to my brother in England. As I remember it was meant to test a Post Office ruling on sending "obscene" material through the mail. Fortunately it was delivered with no bother at all. Tumblr please take note.

I wish the watercolour below was mine, but it's not. 

Andrei Sharov is a Russian artist - as are many followers of my blog. For his sensuous figures he works spontaneously beyond the boundaries of the know, the familiar and the ordinary.

A gauge to measure beauty by

In his introduction to Walter Rose's classic book The Village Carpenter Frank Kendon quotes the following poem:

No gas light ever lit his shop;
He has no wheels to start or stop;
No hot, metallic engines there
Disturb the shaving-scented air;
His hands were engines, and his eye
His gauge to measure beauty by...

The book and poem came to my mind this weekend as I was preparing drawings for a Sedan Chair to carry one of Dominica's Carnival Beauty Queen contenders. The chair will be made by a couple of young carpenters and it will test their skill in terms of workmanship.

These days carpenters rely on machines rather than hand tools. To guide them on their way I took the opening photograph of a small number of hand tools from my own collection, tools that they will need to produce the mortise and tenons and stopped chamfers. Most of my tools are almost as old as I am and some date back to my grandfather's time. The mortise saw and handsaw in the picture I bought with money that was given to me on my fourteenth birthday. They have served me faithfully ever since. 

I wonder who will care for them and work with them after my time. Will they one day build another boat, a house or a handcart like the one pictured below...or will craftsmanship and beauty go a begging?

What might, or might not have been

Forgrove Machinery Co, Leeds. Apprentice Intake 1957

Leeds College of Art Students 1952

Regardless for my flair for art, on leaving Secondary Modern school at the age of fifteen and coming from a family of engineers, going to art school was not an option. Instead, I was indentured to a six year apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. Each day between work and night school I passed the Leeds College of Art, where I wished I might have been.

The first photograph shows me (circled) and my fellow apprentices on our first day at work: a dejected bunch to say the least. The second photograph shows Leeds College of Art students of the same era, looking considerably more cheerful.

Over the years I've kept tabs on my fellow apprentices and they all did well. By my mid twenties I also was doing well and working in the drawing and design office of one of England's major machine tool manufactures. But then I decided it was now or never. I gave up my job and, with a wife and young daughter in tow, declared myself as an artist on the pavements of France. 

Since that day I have never looked back but I sometimes wonder how my envied Leeds College Art Students fared as artists. Moreover, I wonder....would I have fared any better as an artist had I been able to join their ranks.  

Tumblr's Flawed Recognition

I can understand Tumblr's automated algorithms mistaking a painting for a photograph but on appeal I am assured that a "real live human" will review the post. Alas, it seems that Tumblr's real live humans would not know a painting if one feel on their heads. Their flagging of posts that they claim contain adult content, and hence violates Tumblr's Community Guidelines is seriously flawed.

My post dated October 25th and titled "What a Community" delves deeper into this anomaly. The photograph that illustrated the post was flagged by Tumblr and their decision upheld when viewed by a real live human on appeal. Here is the offending picture.

I tried re-posting the above but to no avail. However, the picture below has been accepted, the only difference being that the photograph was taken after I had added the brass shims in readiness for taking a mould from the clay.

In my previous post I drew your attention to three paintings by Edouard Danton that were also were flagged and the decision upheld when viewed by a real live human on appeal. 

To further illustrate Tumblr's flawed recognition I posted the following: 

• A Life Cast that I made of breast and nipple.
• A painting by Renoir titled, Nude before the Bath.
• A painting by Egon Schiele titled, Reclining Female Nude with Legs Spread Apart.
• A fragment of one of my water-colours. 

Not one of the above were flagged by Tumblr's automated algorithms and hence they did not come before the eyes of their "real live human"! 

Understandably, Tumblr's algorithmic checks have difficulty differentiating between a work of art and a photograph, as with Edouard Danton's paintings and likewise when differentiating sculpture from real life. But it's a sorry state of affairs when real live humans can't tell one from the other.

What defeats automatic algorithms are nipples with a difference, as in my life cast close-up; indistinct nipples, as in Renoir's painting; and paintings that are impressionistic or expressionistic, as with Egon Schiele and myself.