Some recent images of the first in the Verticality Series, initially posted here as the original white fired-fired clay form and now as its alter ego, painted using acrylics - Phthalo Turquoise, Raw Umber, Pyrrole Orange - over an initial Prussian Blue acrylic ink wash. A sculpted canvas.
Some images of the two most recently completed Möbius forms, shown at a recent studio exhibition and a subsequent website photo shoot.
They constitute the beginning of my exploration of the Vertical, having previously been more inclined to indulge my affinity with the horizontal sculptural gesture, which has in the past come more naturally to me, having grown up on the Belgian coast: wide horizons the backdrop of a quietening flat landscape.
This "Towards the Heavens" Series represents an open road to exploring Verticality, as my Instagram posts of 10 and 16 March 2021 illustrate:
For me, the vertical is about a sense of elevation. Building up the clay in an upward gesture brings me that sense of elevation, from the Earthly to the Universal.and
... a quote from David Anfam (Clyfford Still Museum) which I came across during my search into verticality and - consequently - horizontality and (subsequently) universality: "Notions of vertical and horizontal are deeply embedded in our DNA ... and we naturally associate the vertical with life itself. The horizontal equates with the horizon and thus a dissolution of our verticality into an inchoate or entropic space." (personally not convinced about the 'inchoate / entropic' connection).
So, let's see where this Series takes me ...
Towards the Heavens 1
48 x 15 x 14 cm
The second of the new verticals in the Möbius Series, unfired. Also part of my exploration of Verticality in sculpture. 44x21x10cm.
Another addition to the Möbius Series, unfired - the first of two verticals and part of my exploration of Verticality in sculpture. 48x15x14cm.
Another addition to the Form-Finding Series - a tranquil horizontal; peaceful, serene, expansive. It takes me to the sea - the Belgian North Sea coast where I grew up - and reflects my present environment, the Ashdown Forest with its wide open-heathland horizons, where I live and work now.
Highly simplified, in the coarser white clay, an exploration of the horizontal, which makes for a very calm, serene form.
I intend to place (display) it on a substantial black-painted wooden base, to anchor/earth it, yet elevating it slightly from its plinth.
In coarser white clay, a playful, slightly smaller Form-Finding addition to the series. 25 x 20 x 15cm
The first in a series focussing on the Vertical - 40x15x10cm; just the beginning of an exploration with much trial and error to come ...
Here I'm exploring an alternative to fixing the sculpture on a plinth by incorporating its base/foot into the overall form. Quite a challenge it turned out to be: finding the balance between making it a functional base whilst finding harmony within the entire form; making it one; a cohesive, harmonious whole.
Also an opportunity to explore air and light, for which the vertical seems to be fertile ground - the balance between the negative and positive space.
The question now poses itself whether to leave it white or to transform it with some colour? To colour or not to colour ... Purity and serenity versus an added je ne sais quoi?
