Back when I sculpted "Whetherbird", the clay original, he was the younger (and littler) brother of "Guidance". I was in love with the idea of milestones, or even monuments, that observed and informed passers-by. The "hieroglyphs" came spontaneously out of my head. I have no idea what they say, but they looked important and meaningful. The "wood" perch that the owl sits upon is painted clay. The whole affair is perhaps 29-30" tall and maybe 8" across the base. The sketch is my initial ideas for the eventual sculpture.
When my husband died, there were two close friends who were truly superhuman in their dedication to getting me back on my feet, financially and emotionally. They helped me avoid bankruptcy with skillful consolidation of debt payments, and did most of the dirty work of helping me price and sell tons of "stuff", and would not accept compensation for their efforts. I gave them "Guidance", as they are bird lovers and art lovers. As eventually happens with all of my work, "Guidance" found his appropriate home.
What a beautiful piece and a wonderful story! You are such a kind and wonderful person Elsbeth!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, Kevin... you are so sweet to say that.
ReplyDeleteIt has a really nice feeling of balance.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Roger. Just wait until he scratches.
ReplyDeleteDo you have drawings of your sculpture designs that you can post? It would be really interesting to see the evolution of a sculpture concept sometime. Of course, we viewers can be content with the sculpture photos!
ReplyDeleteWhat a good idea, Marian. I have old sketchbooks going back decades, and more recent ones that have the ideas for sculptures that I created and sold, as well as ones that never incarnated into clay or bronze. Do you have sketch/ideas for your paintings that you can post?
ReplyDeleteUm, I've never been good at doing value studies in pencil before painting, so not really! In oil painting, it's possible to do the value study in a wash directly on the painting surface, as taught by Mitch Albala, among others, but these get painted over. (I'm just explaining my laziness to everyone else- you know the oil painting 'tricks'.)
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Well, fortunately, you already have the complete concept in your 6x6 paintings... they are the initial idea, AND the finished product! During the decades I was oil painting on canvas, I didn't do "studies" either. I did the India Ink sketches on the canvas, then the values in the wash, then the paint, which often varied hugely from the initial ink outlines. I guess I never did initial sketch ideas until I needed them to scale up templates for my sculptures. The newest ceramic series, posted on this blog and currently at AOtB, were the first sculptures to have no prior sketches.
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