Sculpture and Models, Truth of Materials.

In theater, the sooner you can rehearse in your costume the better the performance. With sculpture, models serve as rehearsals. You learn and improve your ideas with each one.

I made the clay model quickly to show my client. It showed them my idea and worked in the video.
Now it's time to go further and discover what it's really going to look like in wood.

The drawback with clay is that it can be any shape. The clay model is meaningless when the actual sculpture will be in wood. A successful wood carving requires forms unique to wood.

Carving this model helps me plan my moves on the big log,
but instead of a knife, it will begin with a chainsaw.

Sculpture and Faux Finishes 2

It is a ridiculous color.

But it's the right ridiculous color, and the perfect situation to ask a nine year old help me paint.
"Don't worry, Lulu, you can't make a mistake."
She had fun- she got more paint on the panel than on herself. A success.

 Both panels with patina base.

I'm glazing that blue way back into the background.
This begins the maddening swings back and forth from too garish to too subtle.

Sculpture and Drawing - St Clare

"The map is not the territory." is good to keep in mind when drawing for sculpture.

Still, it's good to know if the territory is swamp, desert.....or a garden

Here's the final drawing for "in her garden" or St Clare. 

It's the companion relief for my sculpture "in his orchard" or St Francis  

Are people will be drawn in or put off by the saint aspect? 

I reserve the right to have two titles. The title is not the art.....

 You might notice there's an age difference between these two women. 

There's tons of sculpture of pretty young things, but sculpture of mature women?

I'm working to change that!

 Here's the initial sketch. 

Combining different sized blocks of stone into one carving gives me the 

look I want. (It's also easier on my body to work with smaller units.)

 Lots of little thumb nail sketches to understand how to move your gaze through the art.

Not every drawing needs to be a success to be successful. 

I was trying to do too many things with this one, color it to match the completed St Francis sculpture

before I even finished the layout. It told me to stop and focus on just one thing.

And that gave me this drawing.

Sculpture and the Lions of Paris #1

Are there more lions in Paris than in all of Africa? 
Everywhere you turn, LIONS!

Many elderly lions retire to Paris, in the Louvre and Cluny Museums, where all their needs are met.

Sandstone relief of lion at Cluny Museum

Lion from Iran

Looking good for his age, many hundreds of years.

I must confess, my documentation is poor. There was so much to see and so little time.
You'll just have to go to Paris,  meet them and get to know these lions yourself!

Sculpture and St Clare

It is so nice to be asked.

I'd submitted the St Francis sculpture for the Arts Council of Lake Oswego's outdoor sculpture exhibition, Gallery Without Walls. The committee was concerned that the relief is one sided.
(Who knew there were no more wall backed pedestals?)

They asked if I had a proposal to make it double sided.

YES!

St Clare by Patrick Gracewood ©2012

I've been wanting to make a companion carving for St Francis. 

The logical subject would be St Clare.*

Above is the drawing for the proposed relief.

* St Clare was one of the first followers of St Francis of Assisi. In the Middle Ages, when women were chattel, subject to men, Clare founded a monastic religious order for women and wrote their Rule of Life—the first monastic rule known to have been written by a woman. Monastic life was a way for women of the time to have control over their own lives.

There can be a lot of history in a small sculpture. Helping to raise a young girl has made me think and practice empowering girls and women. Growing your own food was vital in Clare's time and makes good sense now.

Sculpture and Paper Cuts

What happens when you take a flat graphic pattern and sandblast it on to stone?

It's fascinating how that image in stone becomes delicate.

Instead of a flat graphic pattern you see subtle nuances of texture and light.

Wild Rose by Patrick Gracewood ©2012

 Remember this wild rose papercut?

 
Peter Andrusko, master of all things stone, translated it into both positive and negative images on a 12 x 12 inch Pennsylvania blue stone tile.

This is the negative version with the image recessed.

This is the positive version with the image on the surface.

I'm delighted with both versions so I need your help.
Does one (positive) or the other (negative) read better for you?

Sculpture and St Francis

For a heavy cast-stone relief, St Francis has made the rounds. 

photo by David Bales.

Miraculous appearences include back to back garden shows, first at the Yard Garden Patio Show and the Home and Garden Show. The patio garden, so empty without him, is complete with him back in residence.

(Miraculous because I don't need a chiropractor.) The very qualities that make the sculpture work in the garden- its mass and weight, make it a bear to move repeatedly.

Private visitations available upon request.......talk to the saint's manager, that grey haired guy.

Sculpture and Coins

 If you love bas relief, there is no better way to improve your skills than by studying ancient coins.

Hemidrachm, 400-350 BC

Drawing studies from ancient Greek coins by Patrick Gracewood ©2011

Bonhams International Auctioneers and Appraisers is having an auction of coins and medals Dec 16
and and auction of the Meyer and Ebe Collection of Ancient Greek Coins on January 6, 2012.
Check out some of the beauties from the ancient coins. They are amazing.

I made these drawings to study the forms in these tiny masterpieces to better understand the sequence of cuts necessary to achieve the raised portions of the relief. Remember that all these are stamped from a die... so to create the positive sections the artist had to carve the image in the negative and backwards.

Our modern coins are so ugly compared to these. Do you have a favorite coin?

Sculpture and Relief

Let's look at a another bas relief at Portland's Central Library. It's older but far more successful than the relief in previous posts. Why?

It works because it is well thought out and well executed.

Our eyes enter the composition at the upper left corner and go to her face, then we read her entire body and then look at the book she holds.  That directs us to read the inscription. Everything belongs in its place.

Look at the subtle relationships of chair and her body. There are almost parallels of upper arm and chair back. Then look at the converging lines of chair arm and forearm and hand. Her shawl gives supporting forms that fan and span the space between her body and the chair, while her skirt folds end at her knee which brings us back to the book and we're back at the inscription.

Which brings us to the lettering. It was hand carved, backwards into the plaster mold. You don't need to know that to appreciate it, but it helps. The lettering exactly fits this artwork and no other. Look at the kerning of the letters. (Easiest to see in her name: Mary Francis Isom.) There's a subtle irregularity that makes it far more lively than the standard mechanical press and stick letters used on the other relief. These artists knew their craft. They cared.

They cared enough to sign their work.

Sculpture and the Gallery Without Walls

My relief sculptures, The Four Seasons of Love, are is in a book!

It is so nice when a gallery goes above and beyond what is expected to promote their artists's work.

The Four Seasons of Love are on page 7

The Arts Council of Lake Oswego's program Gallery Without Walls is going into new territory creating a cell phone application that guides you through the exhibition with maps and information about this year's sculpture.
They've also published a book and CD of the show that is available on Blurb.com.
Click here to see the book

Bravo and Thank You to the photographer Deb Holister and all the volunteers at the Arts Council of Lake Oswego.

Sculpture and the American Rhododendron Society

Thank you Paradis Express for featuring Bouquet for the City.

Bouquet for the City triptych by Patrick Gracewood ©2011 Acrylic on GFRG. Each panel 45 x 17 x 3 inches

 There was no room near the American Rhododendron Society's registration desk to set up Bouquet for the City, so I installed it in the plant sale room.

The good news is that everyone upon registering immediately walks into the plant room. The bad news is that it's hard to compete with thousands of rhododendrons in full bloom. Plant folks are focused on plants.

 I"m standing in front of 48 square feet of bas relief, people would ask me about the plants on the table.
"Do you know the parentage of Washington Centenial?"
"No, I'm the sculptor of this portrait of rhododenrons."
(I could watch the word sculptor enter their awareness, bounce once and roll off to a dark corner. A few would then actually see the art, most didn't.
Showing art in alternative venues is not for the timid.)

If you can't get their attention, join them. I bought an azalea called "Fragrant Star" some epimediums, a cimifuga and learned to say "Indumentum" without laughing.

Sculpture and the American Rhododendron Society

Bouquet for the City by Patrick Gracewood © 2011bronze relief 45 inches by 51 inches.

My relief sculpture "Bouquet for the City" will be at the 65th annual convention of The American Rhododendron Society in Vancouver Washington this week at the Heathman Lodge.

Titled The World in Your Garden, the convention features speakers from around the world, and tours of outstanding public and private gardens and nurseries with the focus on rhododendrons. 

Painted plaster panel at left and roughing out the composition of the entire triptych.

Here's how and why the sculpture was made. 
In front of my old studio there was a forest of these tree sized rhododendrons. The father in law of my landlord (in her 70's) had planted the grove. They are Rhododendron loderi, the cultivar "King George".



Early in May, bright pink buds unfurl into enormous white blossoms that perfume the entire area. The fragrance is like the most sweet pure air imaginable in the cool spring air. It had the power to stop me several times a day with its beauty.


Homes and businesses in Portland, Oregon have thousands of rhododendrons of every color.  While driving, the title occurred to me: "Bouquet for the City" each flower, each plant an offering.  


I modeled the first panel one spring, pleased with it, I wanted it to be a triptych but had to wait an entire year before it bloomed again. Believe me, when the buds first appeared, I had my easel set up and ready to go!

 Clay panels almost completed.

Completed relief in plaster.

 Another Rhododendron Loderi, Venus.

Don't think bush, think tree. 
This King George is only 4 years in the ground and 6 feet tall by 8 feet wide. 
(Probably going to move it or the pear tree. No room for both.)

Sculpture and The Portland Tribune

A photo of my St Francis sculpture made the front page.

(Let me qualify that: front page of the The Portland Tribune's Home and Garden Section, 3/10/2011.)

Barbara Blossom Ashmun, aka the Garden Muse, wrote about "Gardeners brimming with spring plans" after a visit to recent the Yard Garden Patio Show.

The photo she used is of the Association of Northwest Landscape Designer's colorful booth. Designed by Andrew Babiracki of TerraPrima, its bright colors of oranges and purples make green foliage really stand out.

And at the center of booth and photo? My newest caving. 

Sculpture and St. Francis

The rubber mold used for casting the sculpture.

I've been busy getting this carving ready for the Yard, Garden, Patio Show Feb 18-22 at the Oregon Convention Center. My sculpture will be featured in the Association of Northwest Landscape Designer's booth.

You soon learn in sculpture (and hopefully in life?) that you can't do everything well.
In fact life gets much easier the sooner you can job things out. Specialists don't have that steep learning/remembering curve because they do that specific work daily. They make your work and you look good.

Brian Hering at Design Form made a custom shaped box-mother that allows the cast to be turned over and demolded in one step. It's brilliantly simple because it saves so much effort.

For the welded support stand I went to Howser Steel. Many thanks to metalsmith Larry Kitchens who helped design it and then fabricated the steel  frame.

Cast stone is a fancy name for concrete.
Concrete is grey.
A really dead grey.

So we begin the acid test. Literally. I used Dura-Stain concrete chemical acid stain. It comes in 9 different colors, I used Oak (tan) and Western Brown (a medium chocolate) brown. It gives a nicely mottled surface. (That means I'm still learning how to control it.)

The finished artwork installed in the next post.

Sculpture and Painting

Most sculptors believe that painters have it easy.

Stream 14.5 x 14.5 x2  inches from the quartet Journey. The Nature of Water Series © by Patrick Gracewood

Paint and canvas are cheap compared to mold making materials like rubber, casting metals and foundry costs. Painting's physical labor is easy compared to the exertion required for carving, fabrication, or casting. Painting can be a solo art where sculpture requires team work- even if it's a team of one.

Stream in GFRG before coloring © Patrick Gracewood

That's all true until I begin to paint my sculpture.

Years ago, I thought I could choose form and be able to forget about color.  Just oil the wood carving or seal the marble and it's done. I love the white on white monochromatic subtle forms of the plasters. But that doesn't mean others will understand without the color that helps tell the story.

Color is so seductive.

Sculpture and Models

Maquette for large scale sculpture.

Here's the model inspired the collage cards of the previous post. It's designed to be fabricated with CorTen Steel and dichroic glass to evoke the winding Tualatin river. The model's painted cork board stands in for the CorTen's rusted steel and painted foam core substitutes for dichroic glass.

Sculpture and the Farwest Show #2

 Once the pattern was completely transferred to the plywood, I began by drilling many holes so I could use my scroll-saw.  I changed bit sizes to match the tightest curves of the pattern. The drill automatically cuts a round hole, cutting that with a scroll saw is much more tedious.

The wonderful thing about creating sculpture under a deadline is how many ways it teaches you to be practical AND efficient.

This was my favorite part, I loved the shadows and the scale of it.

I would have loved to have floated the image inside the frame, but it was too delicate so it was mounted it to another sheet of plywood. Then the really tedious part began, caulking all around the entire pattern. That made painting much easier. 

 Both panels were primed and then a quick coat of dark brown spray paint to give more depth. The wood is only 3/8 of an inch thick, so it needs all the cosmetic help it can get.

Next post the finished panels and the show installation.

Sculpture and the Gallery Without Walls #2

Dorothy Parker once said: "I hate writing.   I love having written."

My sentiments exactly regarding installing sculpture. The sculpture is done but everything depends on installation. So much can go wrong.

Here are behind the scenes photos of the recent installation of my relief sculpture, "the Four Seasons of Love", in Lake Oswego's Gallery Without Walls. Photography by Deb Hollister.

Installing sculpture can be very...........HEAVY,

Installing sculpture can be very........... DUSTY and LOUD

 Installing sculpture can be very.....tedious and frustrating.

You measure and mark carefully, the drill bit hits a rock or metal in the concrete and changes its angle. That means your freshly drilled holes don't align with the holes on the sculpture base.

 But ahh, it feels so good to have INSTALLED sculpture. There's a reason the installation is up for two years. Here we are, installed, doing a reenactment of Adam and God from the Sistene Chapel.