Bronze Statues - Work in DevelopmentThese are the very latest bronze statues I'm working on, and they explore the new themes that have come to me in autumn 2006. Some may be successful, and some may not. The only way to find out which work, is to get on and make them! 21st century MumUpdateThis piece has now been cast in bronze, and re-named Flying Lessons.
Recently the cover of the Observer magazine featured the picture of a mother on her back supporting her child aloft on her feet, illustrating an article called '21st century mums'. The mother and child pose was just what I needed for my next piece in the Mother and child series of bronze statues. I rarely see a picture that gives such a clear idea of what a sculpture might be. It's a very cheerful image, with the two figures balancing and holding each other. It wasn't difficult to get the mother and daughter figures roughly in position in the clay. At first I had to use a piece of wood to hold up the child until the clay dried a bit and became stronger. I'd like to think I've managed to capture the gaiety and lightness of the two people. Many of the shapes move upward, and this gives the sculpture optimistic feel. I have now reached the stage of hollowing the clay sculpture out. It's been quite hard to keep the sculpture upright, because it has a narrow base and wants to topple either sideways or backwards, but with more propping I hope to have it stablised into its final position for drying out. The piece still needs a bit of finishing off but I hope it will be dried out for firing in the kiln before Christmas. Back-flips
This autumn (2006) I have begun a new series of sculptures based on back-flips. I have dreams - really - where I can do back-flips, and those dreams are about as exhilarating as flying dreams can be. These are my first tries, and I still haven't got what I want, so will be doing more soon. Diver mum
I love swimming, and swim with a group of very keen adults in a club where we are streamed according to speed in different lanes.With good goggles you can really see what other swimmers are doing as they swim parallel underwater, and I love to watch as they glide and twist like fish, whooshing fast as they turn and push off at the end. I simply marvel at their lightness and speed, and the power of the push-off as they begin a new lap reminds me of penguins diving as they seem to fly through the ocean. So, in my mind, flying and swimming seem fused. How to create that feeling in one of my bronze statues, I didn't know, but I thought I'd begin with the dive. After all, in my mother and child series the woman is almost in a diving pose.So I've begun a new series of divers, but as always I'm working from my 'idea' of how a dive looks - rather than studying a real woman or diver. The trouble is that neither of the sculptures I have begun look right and I ended up providing a child where the diving hands are for balance, and I've ended up with a diving mother - except she's not diving anywhere any more. Now these two have become part of the mother and child series of bronze statues, and I need to work on the diving theme some more. Would it work if the mother were diving towards the child? Can I get the feeling of a flying dive in a new sculpture, or is it silly to try? The next step is to research some good pictures of divers taking off. Back to the top of Bronze Statues.
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