Picking up the Pieces

Just to give an update on the angular form-finding things I was working on over the winter months, this is the final outcome of the latest (or is it last?? no, surely not ...) piece; I was met with a scene of devastation when I opened the kiln:

I am keeping these fragments with a view to incorporating them in a new piece, combining them with some other material in some way.

I like the contrast between the smooth, refined and the rough, broken. I'm also rather pleased with the transition in the change of angle on the intersecting top edges, shown in the last image. A way of making that edge more interesting, rather than simply making it a straight connection, as in the penultimate image.

This had been a substantial piece - the largest yet, measuring approx. 60 x 50 x 50 cm - and had some interesting elements, including the transition described above.

It had presented many challenges, some of which had been resolved better than others.

So there is room - and a desire - for further development/improvement ...

Picking up the pieces; creating something new from the remaining fragments - rather apt in the wake of this devastating EU Referendum ... 

Scrapings

'Scrapings' because that is what they are: a thin layer of clay scraped off the workbench, forming these delicate, intricate organic ... well, scrapings. 
The initial concept came about by sheer chance, which of course, for me, is what makes it. Happenstance.
It happened during my Artist Residency at Tonbridge School back in the Autumn term, as I was clearing up after the boys had left the Gallery. Clearing the tables of tools and left-over and unused clay, and cleaning off the smears of clay on the table tops. One boy had started to roll out a large piece of clay directly on the table and had clearly run out of time at the end of the session, so had left it in-situ.
Having removed the majority of the clay with a cheese-wire, I scraped off the remaining thin layer of clay with one of the modelling tools, and found at the end of my tool a beautiful, delicate slither, so natural that it could only have been made by chance. 
That was the beginning.
I have since been repeating that same gesture over and over, using different tools, and am gradually achieving increasingly intricate, delicate forms.
THE BEAUTY AND MAGIC OF HAPPENSTANCE.
I am now also looking at different ways of placing (displaying) these, which is an art in itself. 
And, again, I'm finding inspiration in the Japanese aesthetic. It's about bringing together a number of similar, simple forms and different elements - the sculptural forms and the substrate/base - and consciously placing and grouping these to create a cohesive whole.

On a fired black clay base

A grouping, some on a base with clean-cut edges, others with torn edges, all of different thicknesses

On wooden bases - old sculpture bases and other bits of wood lying around in the studio (again, it's the happenstance that makes it) - randomly grouped, i.e. as yet unresolved

On newsprint - less successful perhaps, but shows beautiful detail; probably better of black tissue paper

Randomly placed; an interesting interaction between forms and stains/marks on the wooden board

And as in the previous post: a beautiful juxtaposition, created through happenstance

And an update on the latest Angular Form-Finding piece in the next post ...

Exploring New Avenues

The warmer weather always brings a change in the rhythm of life and work and, although this spring has not exactly been glorious weather-wise, the outdoors has certainly been calling. So rather than working in my studio - which is simply a slightly glorified - but glorious - garden shed and which starts to feel a little too hot and closed-in when the sun is shining and birds are singing - the outdoors beckons. And this year I have undertaken to do some things in the woodland, mainly, but also in the garden, seeking to tune in to the surroundings and creating things that intimately respond to the immediate environment.
This requires a very different approach from what I do in my studio when working on my form-finding pieces for instances. The pace of things outside is slower, the atmosphere more serene, calmer, less intense. I seek to open myself up to everything that surrounds me, tune in and invite a way to respond to what I see and feel.
So many ways to interact with this wonder-full environment. 
And here are a couple of images of my beginnings. These are clay imprints of the bark of a glorious redwood in the woodland. I now need to play around with ways to place/display these (images of which with follow in a subsequent post).
This is my way of drawing attention to these magnificent trees that make the woodland such a magical place; my way of paying homage to and exalting nature. 
Many artists prefer to do this with close, figurative representations of what they see. I am seeking to find a different way; my own personal way, one that fits with who I am as a sculptor. 

Redwood bark:

And
Magnolia leaf and fired white clay 'scraping'

Which leads me to the other 'new avenue' I have been exploring.

I am calling these 'Scrapings', an explanation of which will follow in the next post.