MARK RICHARDS FRBS Sculptor. Pietrasanta: November 2012

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Humping the light

Believe it or not, this is a picture of a glowworm trying hump, or whatever glowworms do to ensure they will glow in perpetuity, one of those low voltage mood lights in a driveway.
Via Capezzano.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

I was really struck by this sculpture today....apart from the intriguing composition and seemingly impossible geometry, the way the direct and reflected light mix on the planes is kaliedoscopic. I was entranced.

It is in white marble and by Neil Ferber 2012

Sunday, November 18, 2012

The barrow and Inger's skills of enlargement

Today I walked up through the olive groves and terraced allotments to Capezzano Monte. I had to look at this twice. Just a barrow.

I pass by Inger (one of the sculptors at Studio Sem) and Magnus's house, drop in and feast on home made sourdough and local honey. It is a lovely house to chat things over in and the air seems full of nurturing energy. I do feel very good in this place, but can anyone explain why girls drink such obscure teas?

Later that week in the studio, Inger explains the geometric enlargement system to me.

Prepare your maquette (small scale model of the sculpture) and the block of stone into which you want to enlarge and carve it. The width, length and height of the block should be roughly proportionate to the maquette.

Draw a line on a board and mark one end with a cross (A).

Using a compass, measure the longest distance on the block and mark this (B) on the line (using A as your starting point). Then measure the longest distance on the maquette with the compass Place one end of the compass on point B and scribe an arc on one side of the line. Then draw a line from A so that it intersects the arc at the furthest distance from B (ie, if the arc is a hill on the A through B line, then the highest point of the hill).

You then have two lines, starting from A, making a V shape.

Take any measurement on the maquette and move the compass up or down the V until both ends meet the lines of the V. Mark where one of the compass ends touches, measure from there back to point A and you have the corresponding measurement for the enlargement.

Good luck.

Pigeons

Friday 16th Nov. On my way to work I spotted this. The bird on the right is dead and its entrails were spilling out onto the ground..it had plainly died horribly. I have heard that pigeons can mate for life and the sight of the live one on the left keeping vigil over a perished partner was so touching that I moved in to photograph the scene. I thought that it might make a good image for a St Valentine's Day card. The picture is from some distance. Encouraged by the apparent lack of concern at my presence, I moved in for a better shot.

As I got closer, the live bird tried to take flight. And so did the dead one. Some thin cord was entangled in the claw of the live pigeon and around the neck of the dead one...and so when the live one tried to take off, the weight of the dead one dragged it back down. And so it sat down again, dejected and exhausted. Its grim cargo had all but drained it of energy.

So they were not hard to catch.

With the help of a passer-by I managed to separate them and did what I could to untangle the cord from the live pigeon's foot. But it was so embedded in the flesh that I could do very little except shorten the strands so, at least, it would not snag any more partners.

When I let it go, I was hoping for a symbolic moment...the bird, free at last, soaring up into the azure. But it just fell back on the ground and sat there. Must have been so tired and has probably been eaten by a cat. Or perhaps not.

Relief mould

Discussing the mould and how the work may best translate into marble with the one and only Keera McMartin. Keera has an unparalleled understanding of marble and I learn something new every time I discuss an idea with her.

Taking the plaster mould off the clay.

With Keera looking at the soon to be filled mould trying to decide whether to test out computer scanning and cutting with this piece or whether to cut it myself. Decided on the latter.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Relief panel 1

This is one of the relief panels (78 x 55 cm) in clay. It may form one side of a) triptych with the petrified heart (see post). This work , and the possible triptych, is about devotion. It is a pared down version of Peiro della Francesca's 'Annunciation'

I was particularly moved by the patterns in this painting but distracted by the narrative in the figures. So I have stripped them away.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Wk 7 back in Pietrasanta

This almost felt like coming to a hometown. I picked up my bike at the station, ambled back to my digs and waved merrily at familiar faces. A reassuring shop at the co-op, an inspiring language class at the Croce Verde and a plate of homemade spaghetti with truffle oil and I am right back in the swing of things.

Pisa station earlier today.

Wk 7 The Common

Back at home for a few days...we live on an ancient common in the back of beyond.

Colours of Autumn drench the landscape.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Art is Life

Have been enjoying following a blog tracking what is going on in the Pietrasanta art world and beyond
http://artislimited.wordpress.com/tag/pietrasanta/

Sunday, November 11, 2012

National Portrait Gallery 2

Taking questions with fellow sculptor Sean Henry at the National Portrait Gallery 8th Nov.

National Portrait Gallery lecture

Lecture at National Portrait Gallery 8th Nov on the Gordon Highlanders statue.

Love-child bread

Heading off to London.

One of the things I miss the minute I leave Pietrasanta is Keara's bread

On weekends, Keara hones her talent as a master home baker. This is to the delight of anyone who is lucky enough to get a slab, even a full loaf, on a Monday morning. She gives unto.

It is the best sourdough that I have ever tasted...it is the best bread that I have ever tasted.

Things like this do not just happen.

Sourdough is made using a starter which is a carefully tended flour and water mixture that attracts natural yeasts from the air to, if you know what you are doing, form a beery broth that will keep, with regular feeding with flour and water, for thousands of years. As it is borne of the ambient air, every starter is different and mutable. So no two loaves of sourdough bread are ever the same.

As far as I can tell, Keara's starter contained some of Inger's to encourage it in the first place. Inger is also a master home baker. The starter that kicks this bread into action has grown into its own body. It is their love-child.

This is bread that does not make you fat...this is bread that tastes, smells and feels like bread ought to. This is bread that makes me randy.

Pisa Centrale with thoughts of my growing dependency..

Pisa 2

Pisa Centrale

Pisa central station

Pisa Centrale

Waste of good marble

As Leonardo pointed out, as soon as you pierce marble, the holes set up a dramatic contrast with the white of the stone..bleaching it out almost. So to compete with the holes, I have to give the form a lot more wellie. Then there is the big worry that this is a waste of good marble. This is a mildly irksome, but mostly an odd thing to think about a work in progress...in fact about a sculpture at all. But it has me thinking along the lines of the relationship between the value of the sculptural form being worthy of the material it is made in. And although I am probably only venting some internal struggle, this may have inadvertently sparked my next move. I want to know about beauty..marble, devotion and banality. And I am tempted to see how very not beautiful I can make this beautiful material..how very unworthy it is possible for the form to be of it's parent lump.