New commission in Portland stone; conversation with a piece of artwork

this piece of Portland stone has been talking to me all winter, as it lay in the middle of my front garden.
I picked it up part of a car-boot full I collected  last year when I visited Weymouth

loosely based on leaves, it is designed to collect and channel water into a pond.
Its nowhere near finished but you get the Idea

6th form work at Trinity; students use clay and modroc to explore the subject of Heads in 3D

Sculpture in Portland Stone; mother and child

My 1st piece of work carved in Portland stone

developed from a breeze block sculpture ,I made in respone to the mother & child theme at Trinity Catholic school 2012/13 

I have found Portland stone wonderful but challenging physically

I wanted to convey a mother's strength and tenderness

Sculpture in Portland Stone; Barry the Beak

I am in the process of completing my second sculpture in Portland stone

this piece is inspired by the themes "dark matter"and "gargoyles"
These are both themes I've been using in my work for Trinity Catholic school, Lspa and The Chelmsley Wood stone carvers,at the Baptist church, Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham

 not quiet finished, but I think I'm close to a final form

I started this piece with something very different in mind

the original piece of stone was very long and thin 

my idea was to start with a dragon head similar to "Gorgeous George"(see my post Gargoyles and others, 28/11/13) with a figure holding /appearing from its mouth

But the stone is not the best quality and too narrow, gradually I removed the figure and the front of dragons mouth.
Sometimes I find you have to let go of an original idea to allow the work to fully develop. This process usually starts by a bit dropping off unexpectedly, then quite a lot of swearing.

gargoyles and others,

I carved Gorgeous George in response to two different projects; Dark Matter at Trinity and Gargoyles at Chelmsleywood.

The head of a mythical beast

The size compared to the viewer is important, you have to be able to imagine climbing in.

A very human choice, safety or danger
Elizabeth Frink  looks at this theme in her early work on  the Goggled head.
She talks about warriors; a necessary defence in tribal society yet has the potential to destroy the tribe.
This can be seen in modern society( military coos; Arab spring), as well as ( on a much smaller scale) our choices in daily life. in other words, we gamble.

Goggled Head 1969
Elizabeth Frink

Originally  I made George with massive fangs, but the breeze block crumbled. 

Once I removed the fangs (a risky business), I was able to open up his mouth to produce a better sculpture

Mother & Child theme proves popular at the right price

I was very happy to sell 2 pieces of sculpture this week, I had to settle on a price that does not in anyway reflect the amount of hours sent carving, It does reflect our present age of austerity, people just don't have a lot of money spare.

mother&child 2
2012
breeze block
sold £99

mother&child 1
2012
breeze block
sold £99

development of my portland stone Mother & child piece

I've been working on the Portland stone for about a month 22/9/13

I wanted to base the Portland stone on  this breeze block piece  I created last year while at trinity

Inspired by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. I was trying to get to the essence of the human form, using the simplest shapes (oval or egg shape), Expressing its essence while retaining the intimate gentleness of the subject

in the early stages a lot of stone had to be removed

I realised I could not get exactly the same shape as the breeze block due to an early mistake (mothers head should be bent over the child much more)

but I am still happy with the overall shape

I had to cut down on the mothers head  to get it in proportion

I'm confident this piece is developing well

it has plenty of potentially intimate angles