A Snowy Interlude

It's beautiful up here today. And with the brightness of the sunny, blue sky, some wonderful shadow contrasts on the snow.

One in particular caught my eye this morning:

The shadows cast by the trees onto the lawn are of course usually most noticeable in the summer but these summertime shadows are very different because the trees are of course in leaf. So the shadow in the images above would simply be a very rounded and more solid mass, rather like the one below, from a fir tree immediately behind the magnolia in the centre background of the image. Again here, the density of shadow cast by the magnolia in the summer will be very much like the shadow now cast by the fir tree, the dense shadow immediately around the magnolia trunk.  

And one just for the sheer joy of it all

The Negative Space II

The simplicity of these forms is intentional, as mentioned in my previous post; there is much to consider. The most pressing relates to the materials with which to give concrete form to the negative, inner space, the 'open' space. They are many, but I feel I want to start with polyurethane foam. A material I like working with (click on Polyurethane Foam under Series/Themes on the right on the screen or click here Polyurethane Foam): I like the conversation it imposes. It continues to expand once it's sprayed, in its own, fairly unpredictable way, so, ' ... I talk to it, it talks back to me, and I respond, and so the conversation continues ...' (14/11/2016).

Of course its unpredictabilty will make things 'interesting', so we will have to see whether it works out. The foam will fill the open space and push into and out of the outlets, creating, I would think, interesting shapes as it protrudes from the inner space to the outside.
And where does that 'outside' space end?
And how will I extract the foam form from the clay form? Will I need, or indeed will I be prepared to cut it?

As I said in my previous post, I kept the first form simple, and did so because I wanted to limit the technical challenges (as mentioned above) to start with. 

Form I - one large inner space with four points of exit:

Form II - two large inner spaces, encountering the outer space in opposite directions. How?

Very many questions ...

The Negative Space

I have worked on the series I refer to as my 'Form Finding' pieces for some time now, the first one back in August 2013 (an explanation by clicking on 'Form Finding' under Series/Themes on the right of the page), and have, over time, become increasingly conscious of the negative space I create during the process of making. Some of these negative spaces that come about have not been fully to my satisfaction, sometimes being unsettlingly wide or deep, or uncomfortably tight, too narrow.
I feel, therefore, that there is still much work to do. I want to understand this negative space better and hope to achieve that by finding ways of exploring it.

The negative space informs the positive space - by 'positive space' I mean the positive form, the clay form, the clay substance.
My awareness of the negative space (I'm not very fond on this term 'negative' so will need to find an alternative in due course ...) has been somewhat haphazard to date, the outcome around 70% conscious, 30% coincidental. 
Increasing my focus on this negative space should deepen my consciousness of it and therefore, I think, not only improve that negative space but, because the negative informs the positive space, should bring about a different dynamic in the overall sculpture.  

Below are some images of two pieces I have been working on recently. The first a very simple one - I shall explain the reasons for this simplicity in the next post - and the second with a slightly more complex positive/negative dynamic.

I 

II