Pershar

Following the simplicity of the simplest rings, I wanted to try to add a second element. Something rougher, some turbulence in the slipstream. Actually it did not really work out like that at all as often happens: the spikes are aggressive, even provoking fear. Most of my work is gentle, and I am happy, just occasionally, to give it some bite!

Lynaeus

I carved this pattern repeatedly on relief carvings, twenty years ago. I was interested in how the flow, running anti-clockwise, can swirl up to a point or down to a pit. I enjoy the moments of calm where the currents travel neither one way or the other. Although 'Lynaeus' has a mathematical feel I simply drew circles on the sphere getting the highs and lows to alternate as best I could. There was no clever algorithm employed. Perhaps the repetition of a simple instruction creates a sense of mathematical order. I like to feel that it is more like the order seen in the branches of a tree.

Hatchlings are gone

The sculptures are now in London and the studio bare. It is a strange feeling to sweep the floor; all the babies gone. Those ideas that have filled my mind and life, both mentally and physically for a year, are gone. I find it a curious and wonderful thing that those thoughts have been translated into marble; frozen in perpetuity and then migrated, who knows where? Am I sad to see them go? No, not really. I have noted many times that my sculptures get bought by people who love them and with whom I, perhaps inevitably, feel an empathy.

Tall form

I am enjoying the form created by the overlapping segments which I have been recently trying out. This is an attempt to use it on a larger scale. I am unsure as to how it will turn out. I probably need to stand it up soon before I can tell if it is a brilliant idea for a sculpture or er... something else. Tomorrow perhaps I should stand it up to face the truth.

Rough Base

Weeks have past since I last wrote anything on my blog. I have not been idle however and several new works have emerged towards my show in London in June.  This piece here has been re-worked and a base made for it. The Kilkenny base did nothing for this sculpture and I settled on this rough edged Tunisian black marble instead. The sculpture itself is all smooth roughly spherical forms. The external sphere. The internal sphere, and the spherical hole piercing the sculpture. The rough surface of the base contrasts nicely with this excess of spheres. Settling the sculpture down onto this uneven surface was quite a job. The bottom of the sculpture is painted in wet yellow paint, lowered into position, lifted off and the base ground away where the paint shows. The process is then repeated and repeated until the sculpture looks like a broody hen settled in her nest.

Chop chop

This is pretty much a repeat of an earlier sculpture but on a larger scale. I bet it ends up looking quite different somehow. I already have the feeling that this is a little more bunched up than the other one. I love this piece however and feel the idea merits another try. Carving it is following a path I know and should be straight forward. Several days of chopping to remove the bulk of the material as most of this carving is space and must be removed first before the more delicate work can begin. I must be careful not to break this one and remember to do everything in the right order and not to get sloppy!

I have been gently working away at this piece this week. Although it looks near completion I have been fine tuning a couple of aspects. Firstly the shape was not quite to my liking. The ring was not round but squashed on one side. As I sit here trying to describe the shape I think of those round crisp snacks that we used to jam on our fingers as children. I forget their name. After some time of cogitation I decided to thin one area rather than to keep the uniformity of thickness. I think it was the right move. There is no going back at least. Secondly, I have settled the sculpture down onto its base. There was a gap and it is getting smaller by degrees. I want the view from the side to be quite dark. A white strip of supporting marble is visible at the moment and must be hidden by lowering the sculpture some more.