the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 38

well.... what an interesting day!

Started playing a bit with the new material. I need a big saw machinery but this will have to wait! ( cant afford it:) ) so got little saw instead and other little little tools... if you want to see the result then you wont ...not  quite yet! not quite grasp the new stuffs yet:) but one thing I did manage to make is a BIG BIG mess in my studio:) I think I was a bit too ambitious with what I was trying to make to start with. so tomorrow, I will have another go but i will be sensible and start with simpler shapes.
For that I did few little maquettes in clay and will try to reproduce them using the new stuff ( starting with the small one!). here is my little "organic forms" to use.

The multiple project is going on well, few more little horses on the go ( very small ones) but will be adding pictures tomorrow.

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 37

today I was so exiting to start working with the new material... and OH NO!! missing some of the tools:(

so off to B&Q tomorrow to get few of them! in the meantime, I had a bit of fun with shapes here!

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 36

new sketches

....and new material (YEAHHHHHHH)!


I wont tell you more for now...keep watching!

Reflections- 2 years on....

I have been sculpting for over 5 years now but only 2 years as a professional artist.

There are no manuals on how to become an artist. Before becoming an artist, I used to work in IT for over 15 years and although you always decide your own career, there is always along the line someone to give you advices if they feel you are going the wrong way or doing any mistakes. I remember those famous yearly reviews at work ( they used to drive me mad!) where your boss used to tell you the good and bad points about you, what you needed to improve and work on, and what training you required... There is nothing of such for artists, you have to think it for yourself with nobody asking you for it. 

Developing techniques, understanding materials and understanding anatomy are important tools to hep artists expressing their vision and develop their identity. To find the right technique or material to communicate our vision accurately is a journey of experimentations, discoveries and can be difficult. 

Yesterday I was visiting one of the Top UK artist ( who does the most amazing contemporary work!) and learned about new materials to use so I am so exiting to apply it to some of my sketches.  

latest sketches

As difficult it can be to learn new techniques, they can be taught and can be learned and it is probably the easiest part of the journey of an artist.

          Picasso ”I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.”

Finding your vision and your identity is a much harder task. Finding your message, that something special that defines you  can not be taught!  We are alone in this part of the journey and I think this is probably the hardest part of all. Many artists spend so much time developing their techniques to perfection that they forgot an important element that defines us as artists.

Abstract american painters Richard Diebenkorn said, “For every artist that has something worthwhile to say but lacks the technical ability to communicate his idea perfectly, there are a thousand artists with all the technique in the world and nothing to say”

I am sure that there are a lot of different interpretation of Richard Diebenkorn quote but for me this sentence gives me hope to becoming a good  artist one day.....

My new books

Couple of new books...
Barbara Hepworth and the biography of Elizabeth Frink!

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 35

Finishing the maquette for Angel

Silver Commission- Levade between pillars

The silver piece is now completed and delivered.

This is a magical piece...

few of the pictures I took at the foundry

here are some picture kindly provided by Sgt Ian Vernon.

Pictures kindly provided by Sgt Ian Vernon, vooster@hotmail.com

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 34

Busy day tis one

Raku day -

Finishing the first couple of piece for the multiple project

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 33

The multiples/ installation

I have still been thinking about this project but I think the first 3 pieces that I did for that are not right at all so I need to re-think how I am going to do this project. recently , I have been doing small maquettes that could work better for this project...

The purpose of such a project is to create an impact of masses, an installation of sculptures where one sculpture is only a small part of a larger scale piece.

I did a such of what an art installation means and this is what I found so far:
1)Installation art describes an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.
2)Installation art uses sculptural materials and other media to modify the way we experience a particular space. Installation art is not necessarily confined to gallery spaces and can be any material intervention in everyday public or private spaces

Those little sculptures are very small and by themselves, they are not having much of an impact but a lot of them would change the perception of the same space.

a very bad photo montage to show the difference

Just to quote an artist that I really like and respect: "I think I understand something about space. I think the job of a sculptor is spatial as much as it is to do with form. (Anish Kapoor)". I discovered Anish Kapoor's work while watching a show on TV about his exhibition at the Royal academy. During his interview he said that he wasn't doing art to shock but because he enjoyed making beautiful objects...those words made me look at his work.


Anish Kapoor is right ,  being a sculptor is not only about understanding forms, it is also about understanding the space.It could be the space that the sculpture occupy, the space created by a sculpture, the feeling of a space created by a sculpture or even the feeling created by a sculpture in a space.... 


I can just imagine that the effect of a large group of the similar sculpture in one room would have a very different effect than a single, tiny little sculpture on a very tall plinth in the middle of a huge room! 

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 32

Busy day today! half the day at the foundry..

anyway, I have been working on miniatures works this morning just to try to help me progressing some of my sketches....ongoing works

maquette for "Angel", about 10cm  high

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 31-I am back!

I am back!!
yesterday, I had some training ( that I book for a while back) and that gave me the boost I needed so hopefully I am back.
I have completed this little clay

Also did rework a bit a sketch. The piece Horse and amazon is too short and I think It would be so much better much higher, like a cathedral.

latest life drawings

2nd and third week life drawing class

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 31-blockage! blank blank blank....

well, I thought it would be easy to get inspired for 100 days but IT IS NOT:)

going out of the comfort zone of what I usually do is quite tiring and there are days when I am quite happy with the result, some days when I think that it is terrible and now: BLANK! total blockage of inspiration!!
It has been 7 days with no artistic and creative work! looks like I probably needed a little break, yet again:)
Anyway, I had my 3rd life drawing class this evening and I am quite happy with few of the drawings, looks like I start to get a crack-on those drawing skills! I will be posting the pictures tomorrow.

About my "multiple project", I have been doing 3 pieces now ( out of the 16!) but I have been thinking around the ones that I have so far and I will have to re-start this one again as this is the wrong type of piece for this particular project that I have in mind.so this one will have to be re-thought:)

anyway, as I am typing, I have few ideas...so the 100 days will resume soon. It is 100 days but not consecutives ones:)

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 30

First set of the multiples project ( they are not finished yet but the clay is too wet)

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 29

This is a little quick design for a project with multiples. I think the sculpture will work well with 16 different pieces ( not shown on the design).

the new challenge: 100 days in the unknown! Day 28

Looking at multiples.

I am currently looking at multiples. The first time I cam across multiples was when I wen to the museum to see the terracotta soldiers. It was amazing to see so many work all together. The effect was very strong, much stronger than having one single piece displayed.

this is not the one from london :)

Since that, I came across few other example of multiples: Anthony Gormley with the European Field,  Anthony Gormley with the Iron Men, Allan McCollum with Over ten thousand different works. Mauro Perrucchetti  with his jelly babies sculptures...


During an exhibition, I did display once  a lot of little pugs and I must say they looked so great! better than f there was only one piece or even the pair.

It is very easy to see the difference here.  Visual effect in sculpture is as important as the work itself. Whether the work is displayed on a different base, or with other sculpture the effect that the viewer is experiencing is very important.
Would that then become an installation......where sculpture alone is not enough. Sculpture becomes part of the installation,an object to serve the installation.
I already have a great idea for a project with multiple sculpture:) which I will reveal later on in the course on the 100 days.