Sunday, April 28, 2024

Installing 'Gathering' - a three post sculpture

 


On Friday afternoon Fiona, Faith and I installed the three post sculpture I had been working on - see photo above. The trio is called Gathering - reflecting people in the village meeting up for a yarn, a walk or a glass of bubblies. 

A few installation photos follow. The input of Fiona and Faith was as usual invaluable in that they have a good eye for location, negative space and the best faces to see from different directions. 





As you can see from the opening and other photos the sculptures was 'launched' with bubbles. It was suggested that up lights might be a nice touch for nighttime. As you can see from the photo below soft solar powered lights give the work an ethereal look.






Friday, April 26, 2024

Back to metal - some shiny - some not

 

I have sold a few bits and pieces of my hammered metal lately so it is time for a restock. Today I managed to get a few more Starburst Vessels (above and below) into the shop at Deckled Edge Press studio-gallery. The vessels in the opening photo are made from good silver over copper; whereas the two sets below are made from more worn metal.


I also got a bit of time to cut copper plate - some shiny and some not so shiny. These pieces of copper will become larger patinated copper leaves. The shiny ones will become indoor pieces. The grungy piece with a bit of patina will become outdoor pieces - most likely as part of my Bending Series. The shiny copper blanks are 180mm long; and the others are about 210mm long.



It was good to be back to cutting and hammering metal; but also using up more of the resources in the workshop.

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Bits from the week

 

As the title says in this blog post I simply share some images from the week gone by.  Some where I have just played with settings on my phone as in the 'still life' above; and others where I have removed the background. Check out the large caterpillar near the gardenia in the last photo.








All good creative fun - which I enjoy and hope you do as well.



Sunday, April 21, 2024

Love the shed and testing frames

 


I love how the watercolour of the sheds turned out - the photo above is a photo of finished work with background removed. I think the finished work is very reflective of the texture and colour of the actual shed on a Scottish roadside.

A few process and other images of the shed and the Syre Church I also worked on. The two completed works including another of signed works and a photo of the Syre Church painting with background removed.






I bought a few frames to test how the watercolours might looked framed - see framed works below. I am going to test how they look with black mats.


I'm still learning a lot about watercolour painting; and am appreciation the input from Megan.

Friday, April 19, 2024

Two beauties

 

I got time to whittle away at some timber to carve a couple of timber vases as you can see from the photo above. The smaller tall one on the left is carved from a piece of the fallen liquid amber tree branch; and the one on the right from a scrap of rough cut camphor laurel.

Some process photos follow. In one you can see that I used the draw blade to shave the rough cut area off the camphor laurel. I was going to leave the bark on the liquid amber but found it had lifted in the drying process is ib the end it had to be removed.





I must say - carving these forms can be quite relaxing. The only drawback I have had to date has been that fine wood dust has the tendency to get in my eyes even when wearing protective glasses.


 

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Beauty without backgrounds

 

The photos from my walk this morning focussed on the simple but beautiful flowers etc that were on the roadside. I have removed the backgrounds to the photos to highlight the beauty.










There was also a beautiful wallaby with a joey in its pouch in a yard on my walk.

Such simple local beauty helps me to find a balance to the darkness and atrocities across the globe at the moment.