Chinese Art

Went to see The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art at The Saatchi Gallery in the King's Rd yesterday.


Great space and an interesting exhibition in which I particularly liked these huge (4m x 2.5m) paintings made with incense ash by Zhang Huan.

Fragments of incense sticks lie strewn on the canvas >>>>

Recycled Clay Works In Progress

All of these works in progress have been rustled up from waste clay that I have taken home from the studio and then recycled at home. Generally I have just added water and worked moisture back into it.
I am enjoying this archetypal image of wholeness at the moment:
My mother in law showed me a kitsch plastic lady (on a desktop pen holder) that she liked. I made this as a result but she wasn't impressed.
So I made the following 5 min sketch of her object to appease her!
This was made inside the previous bowl (Inspired by #3), but this time with the newspaper packed around the outside with the inside smoothed. It will be an inverse of the first bowl.
More masks for the mask collection!

Ice

There's ice everywhere in this cold weather and it's great to sculpt. Here's what I got up to yesterday!

Inspired By #3

This piece was made by smoothing a thin layer of fresh clay over an inverted mixing bowl which I had covered in scrunched up paper to allow the drying clay to move when shrinking, preventing cracks.
I wanted to make a smooth rounded shape reminiscent of Christine's curves. I suppose that this could be a large buttock but I will leave the analysis to the viewer.
The red glaze is a simple paint job while the inside cabbage effect glaze in blue, green and white was done by diluting the glazes with water, mixing azures, greens, reds and sand colour and then allowing the watery glaze to drip around the contours of the bowl. I would allow some glaze to run in from the lip of the bowl, then pick it and rotate it in the air to get the colours into different nooks and crannies. I am quite pleased with the effect and it has given me further ideas for more works made in a similar way.

Inspired by Christine #2 Fired

This delicate piece unfortunately broke in two places on firing. I was probably pushing the clay to its limits with this structure but will be able to repair by gluing it. This is inspired by the left breast and abdomen of the model as she lay on her side. The whole piece also evokes for me the lying whole woman.

Finished Mask

I enjoy painting these masks, though it definitely takes longer than making them!

The Brain

Based on the same ideas of the Inspired by Life class ... here is The Brain

Scary Baby ...

Maria's baby has been causing a stir in the sculpture studio of late, causing several other works to smash without warning to the floor. More than one sculptor has run screaming from the room in terror!

Great Portraits & Cast Offs

I dropped into the National Portrait Gallery this week and was impressed with these two bronze heads, done in a rough and characterful style. They are John Betjemen by Angela Conner (1973) and Maxwell Fry by Gertrude Hermes (1965)
Meanwhile this is what I have been up to with more cast off clay. This is a maquette to test how the structure dries and what problems there are with it.

Fired Life Model

Here is the final fired Christine #1, inspired by the life model. I paid most attention to the middle section which I think looks good. The head and feet could have had more work maybe but overall I am happy with the piece as a first proper attempt.

Ugolino

Here are two version of Ugolino & His Sons by the French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Ugolino was a 13th Century Pisan nobleman who apparently starved to death in prison with his sons and grandsons. Dante put Ugolino in the Inferno but with quite a different back story to the historical one.

Anyway ... Paul much prefers the maquette in the Musee d'Orsay (left) to the finished article in the Met in New York. I am not sure what I think. How about you?

Inspired by Ron Mueck?

A very speedy head made using the same techniques as the Christine life extemporisations, building walls, bridges and enclosed spaces, seeking to test how far the clay will support itself.

Inspired by Christine #2

Masks

A couple of masks made from waste clay I had at home. Don't throw your clay away! It can be recycled!

Les Grottes de Christine

Some of the structures I had made collapsed during the week so I changed the look of this piece and will hopefully now fire this version. It is more spiky & rugged than my original concept which was a more exact representation of the body proportions.

Casein Finished For Now

I think I might stop now ... the casein finish is still changing and still smelling a bit, but I think I'll see what my Dad thinks of it before I make any further changes.

Inspired By Christine #1

A life size section of Christine, built up hollow.

Cheesey

The odour of cheese lingers. I thought it was me but no, on investigation it was the head. So I tied a jostick to a string and hung it down inside to smoke out the rotting camembert whiff!

Tools

Casein Jack

After soaking in skimmed milk and drying out, here is Casein Jack before being chalked.

Alginate

Can you stop your mind turning this round? You are actually looking into the back of an alginate mask cast from my face last year but your brain won't let you process that - will it?! Ha ha ha!

Casein Finish

Casein (from Latin caseus "cheese") is the predominant phosphoprotein (αS1, αS2, β, κ) that accounts for nearly 80% of proteins in milk and cheese. Plaster casts were traditionally finished with this substance although the method is little used today according to Badger. Except perhaps by experimental sculpture students ...

Casein is deposited by steeping a finished sculpture in skimmed milk (only skimmed). What it'll do to clay is another matter of course, but I am game to try anything once. Paul has convinced me to try it on my Dad's head - the clay one that is.

Process Instructions from Paul:
To avoid using a large quantity of skimmed milk, put the object first in a plastic bag, and then fill the bag with milk. After an hour or so remove the sculpture and allow it to dry completely. A final polish can be achieved by rubbing French chalk into the surface to give a higher lustre. Casein finished plaster, it has been said, resembles bone.

Ok so here we go ... 5 litres from Lidl ... the head goes in a bag which is filled with milk ...
which then leaked everywhere so I tried pouring and brushing on the milk
and then trying the bucket again!
And some other sculptures decided to take a milk dip as well!