Its been another great week at the studio, like Christmas day for me, because having not seen the works for a couple of months, its been slightly over whelming seeing them all again and deciding which works to complete has been difficult…. I have had to cover a lot of work at the studio so I can focus on the current carvings and not allow myself to get distracted…
‘Blue Portal’, in blue visag granite, stands at 1.5 mtrs… visag is one of my favourite stones, not just the colour, but its consistency – a joy to work with. This form is about the deconstruction of the line of this series and I am excited about the results – a great form. The temptation is to continue carving, rounding off forms and texturing surfaces, but as a stage in the evolution of the series it does all I want it to do… I am in a constant battle with myself trying not to over complicate carvings, allowing the stone to have its say…
Next, ‘Burst’- again in visag blue granite, this form needs little explanation, it is a small explosion of stone in what ever environment its placed, I have returned to this form a few times, I love it. I try to keep a sense of the immediate to the work, again keeping the hand drawn element to the line. here she has a polish, but i am going to finish her with a finely ground surface, not only giving the work a softer appearance, but leaving the stone surface ‘open’, she will hold the morning dew as this evaporates it gives the sculpture another narrative, from dark blue to a crystalline white as the day progresses…
‘Hug’- Black Granite from Kanchipuram, this is the stone I learnt granite carving with all those years ago and I always come back to it. It has the ability to be ground and polished to so many different grades of grey to black, and fantastic soft deep black when hand polished. This form is a study, simplification, of the line of the series, the line has evolved from ‘Shimmer’ etc, but the carving became about the form inbetween, from quite a formal approach to the carving this was a lovely surprise. Hug?, well I think that’s self explanatory!
‘Paca’ – Green Kanyakumari granite, the more I work with this stone the more I like it. Though I’ve not yet taken the surface to a high polish, the level of polish I have completed both on this work and previous have hit a point where I am really happy with – I like the softness of the matt effect as opposed to a high gloss mirror polish. This work was named by the workers at the studio; and is one of their better names, I shall not be using other names such as ‘banana stone’ – well, not yet!…. Its true it resembles the reverse of a Indian coin; Paca is to the rupee what the pence is to the pound, rarely used these days. The form was approached in the most formal way so far, with a geometric pattern laid out on the stone surface and only then, a hand drawn line constrained with in the geometry drawn and cut.
‘Red’- Ruby red granite, hard but what a colour!, really pushed the line with this carving and I love the movement it has given the form. I can see it getting another visit at a bigger scale in the not too distant future. She is a long way from finished, but as a first glance I’m sold – the form in the back ground is a variation on the portal idea, not for this season.
This year I will be exhibiting at Doddington Hall, Bordehill Gardens, Stanmer House and installing work at the Essential Sculpture park, as well as on form 16, I’m looking forward to an exciting year.
Here are some of the smaller works, waiting patiently in the studio for finishing…
Thanks for reading…