1- Sculpture Paintings
This weekend I worked with Richard, the model, on drawings for the 'sculpture paintings' (he was, as I expected, great! Not only does he get the pose I want right away--& hold it--but he acts as well. I say angry, he becomes the embodiment of anger, I say fearful...)
I have worked out all the essential detail necessary to plan the placement of the two figures on the wooden boxes, & hence, the boxes themselves. I will undoubtedly need more sessions when it comes to painting. Here, a few of the couple of dozen sketches;
I spoke with Malcolm in the wood shop about my plan &, from some sketches on paper towels, Malcolm gave me advice about thicknesses of wood. He also advised I move the parts with strength from the chunky frames I had planned, & thin plywood, to thick plywood & thin frames. Explaining that the mitred edges of the plywood will come out cleaner if they have a bit of heft.
We have a plan & a start date. I will get B&Q to deliver directly to the workshop the day after Easter break. Tonight, I will begin the calculations for the sizes of the boxes & quantity of materials I will need.
Calculating the dimensions of the nine boxes :( total height: 180 cm
with figures
boxes alone
calculating how much plywood in square cm,
& how much wood beam in linear metres
2- Sculpture Painting, table size
I bought a wooden beam 6.9 x 7.0 x 240 cm from which I cut a six blocks of different sizes, & two with an angled side. I sanded them &, first, dipped them in white paint, & then gave them another coat with a brush. I have designed them for the figure of a falling man. It will be about 22 cm tall. I will see how this one comes out before attempting the second.
3- Vase I
Phil fitted me out with almost all I need to make the lead collar for the big vase. By sheer good luck, in a very old box, we found a square piece of lead sheeting, nice & thick, of exactly the right size (nothing else in the box would have worked to make it of a single piece). He didn't have any round-headed punches small enough for the detail I want, so I intend to buy some 12 penny nails & shape them on Phil's metal grinder.
I got all of the extra bits I wanted to attach to the vase done today & began painting over them. Excepting the lead collar, I am finally coming close to the final, enveloping, layers which I have been counting on since the beginning, to pull it from its present garish chaos, to something more harmonious. I have had a few failed projects this year, I hope my vague inner vision for this vase, comes together now at the end.
4- Vase II
I met with Matthew, the potter, about the design for our second pot. We looked at a photo of a Guanche pot whose shape I liked well enough to photograph in a museum in the Canaries. We talked about its dimensions &, endlessly, about possibilities for the handle of the lid (the pot I photographed had no lid). While designing the exact proportions for Matthew this afternoon (drawing below), I decided to do away with a handle altogether.
So, I may have a new pot to work with as soon as the end of the week. I hope to finish the first with another week's work or so but, to complicate things a little, I have decided to do this new one as a proper ceramic, that is to say, all the decoration will be fired. I am now thinking of using the mural I did in the studio at school as subject. It would lend itself nicely to the second vase's shape--the large figure looming over the lid, the cringing figure painted over the shoulder of the pot, & perhaps, the tree sgrafito'd in the background. It also, by coincidence or sub-conscious, plays well with the subject of the sculpture painting. Oh, & if Phil can facilitate, I would like to forge a thick, rough metal ring for the hole in one of the handles.
5- Painting
I began preparing the big canvas (5 x 4' 150 x 120 cm) with a mixture of earth (dried on the radiator) & PVA glue.
I then painted over the whole surface to both soften the edges of the pebbles & stuff & to insure their firm adhesion. I also used the white paint to add more texture--allowing the paint to drip & also by dripping a la Pollock from a copper pipe
Third step: I painted over it again with Raw Umber (acrylic) adding more drips (shiny here because it hadn't dried yet).
My reasoning for adding texture is that, since I am playing with the idea of kinetics, a randomly-uneven surface will disallow straight lines, making it livelier.
Finally, this weekend, at the end of our second session of sketching, I got a few strokes down just to see it started. (Section of canvas)
