Bigger stack with a twist

This piece is coming on well and I am looking forward to standing it up. It has been several days since my last post as I have been attending an exhibition Out of Nature in Herefordshire. All sorts of sculpture on display in the gardens of the magnificent Newport house. I was asked to give a talk about my working practices. I followed Satish Kumar in talking as he opened the exhibition; always a hard act to follow. He speaks brilliantly! Mine was ok although there is certainly room to improve, I find that standing in front of lots of people makes me a little nervous and as a consequence muddle all that I want to say. Carving this new piece is easier for me than public speaking. I must consider what kind of base to put it on.

Bigger version with a twist

I liked the last piece with the square mushrooms wobbling upwards, so I am trying a new version. The top forms will be twisted 45% from the bottom. I am taking a good deal of trouble to get the shape of the sculpture as I want it before getting involved with the individual forms. I am of course itching to reveal those forms and have to hold myself back to some extent. The Matbro is back and working thanks to my wonderful neighbour Rich. I was alarmed however to find that it was not where I parked it last night. The handbrake obviously needs some further adjustment as the machine had rolled out of the shed in the night. Luckily the wheels were not aligned and it turned away from the huge hole that I have dug for the compost. Had the wheels been turned the other way, it would have rolled straight in!

Careful work

This new piece is looking stronger. The neater the shapes are the better it reads. I do not want to see too much of the underside of the forms and I therefore need to undercut each individual ‘mushroom’ as much as I can without the corners becoming too fragile. Slow and patient work but a good day in the late summer sun. The bees whose hives can be seen from where I work are flying less and seem to be spending much of their days fighting off the wasps who are determined to rob them of their winter stores.

The acting world is safe

The day happened. Western power provided a generator; eventually. The first one ran but gave no power. The filmmakers filmed me all day and I nattered on about my work. All was going well ( and I was beginning to fancy myself on the stage) until the director asked me to do a scene again as I had not said it as well as when we had been talking casually. I had omitted a crucial part. By the time we had done three ‘takes’ I was feeling rather hot and very self conscious.Yes the acting world can sleep easy. Chatting away about my work is easy enough but having to remember what to say, what to omit and where to stand whilst you say it is too clever for me.I shall look upon actors with newfound admiration. I got a few hours done on my carving which progresses well.

A new beginning

I have a new block started following an idea that I carved earlier in the series. The stack of symmetrical forms bringing to mind a stack of books or an oriental temple with multiple diminishing roofs. I plan to stack the forms once more but differently. I have a film crew coming tomorrow to start making a short film about my work. My gallery in London (John Martin) are using them for promoting  their artists. As bad timing has it Western Power have decided to do ‘essential’ work on our supply tomorrow and we shall have no power all day. To their credit however they have agreed to lend me a generator for the day. I only need enough power to feed my power tools and the film crews lighting rig. Perhaps they will not need the lights if the sun shines as it did today.

Still tweaking

I just cannot let this one go. I work on an area and then working my way through the various grades of abrasive bring the worked on area up to a smooth finish in order to reflect upon the whole once more. Somehow the whole day was taken up in this manner. A few spoonful's of dust and little changes here and there. I shall look at it once more, with fresh eyes in the morning. I hear from Rich at the farm that the Matbro is ready for collection. I need it to load the trailer with work to go to the Joze Show in Sussex. Apparently the seals on the replacement ram are damaged so that the boom drops slowly. We shall have to get a new seal kit fitted to the ram but hopefully I can manage to load the trailer even with the dropping arm.

Slimming down

Very slowly I have been thinning down the figure. Of course in carving, a figure always gets ‘thinner’ as you can only take material away. I do find it a fascinating business trying to make a female figure look fairly light on her feet when in reality she makes the Incredible Hulk look like a lightweight. I don’t really feel that I have developed a strong ‘language’ in figurative carving as it has only ever been an occasional thing for me. I might perhaps do a whole series sometime to see what develops.