Great news! - I am delighted to have three pieces on show in Gloss Gallery at Exeter. This is a wonderful new gallery recently opened in a beautiful Georgian building; sympathetically converted to a contemporary art gallery. Have a look at their website www.glossgallery.co.uk or better still, if you're in the vicinity - call in and talk to Francesca who has done such a great job in getting the gallery off the ground!
Well, a lot of wet and dry smoothing and polishing over the last few days and the torso is finally finished - hurrah! I was keen to get the piece completed and found an old block of oak that I'd been saving for the base. The highly polished surface of the Purbeck stone reveals some tiny fossil fragments and also looks a little like marble, the smooth lines provide an interesting contrast with the rough texture at the top. It's over a year since I started this piece but I'm really happy with the way it's turned out.
For the last few weeks I've been working on this piece using a combination of chisels and some heavy duty rasp files to further work the surface; the trouble is, as I smooth the surface I can then see where I need do more work with a chisel, which then needs smoothing out with a file again and so on......
Over this weekend I've spent some hours using a flat chisel to smooth out the 'cross-hatching' effect produced by the toothed chisel used to rough-out the piece in the early stages (see previous posting). I quite like the way carving is a bit like drawing in three dimensions. With the natural light coming in from the window to the side this helps me see the form more clearly and look for the level of definition I want to achieve.
I've been working on the stone carving quite a bit over the Bank Holiday weekend and it now has a front surface which is gradually meeting up with the back. I'm not sure what it says about me but I prefer starting with the rear. I also remembered a great tip from one of my favourite old art teachers (Joe Burrows who is still producing wonderful pieces even though he retired from teaching 20 years ago) - he advised carving the stone in a tray of sand, which as the piece looses its regular surfaces is a sure way of holding the stone in almost any position - and it helps absorb some of the impact thereby reducing the noise a little too - a win all round I reckon.
Recently I've started a couple of smaller pieces in red scopas wax. This one is built around a simple wire armature and is about 12" high. I like modelling directly in wax, it needs to be kept at the right temperature to handle and mold and it can be worked to quite a tight, smooth finish when cold. The Lizzie sculpture on my web-site was constructed this way and I love being able to polish the surface and actually 'finish' the work. I wasn't sure initially about doing smaller pieces as they can end up looking a bit like trinkets, so I'm striving for a more sculptural look - whatever that is.....
This piece was my version of a small bust we bought from the late Nick Deans. I had the very good fortune to meet with Nick on several occasions before his untimely death in 1991. He inspired me to start sculpting and I loved his way of presenting the figure. I've altered this work a couple of times as you can see and I'm still not sure about how I want it to look. The nice thing about clay is that I can keep on mucking about with it, whenever I feel like it.
This is the Arc of Angels by sculptor Rick Kirby. It is in a new housing estate at Portishead which is about 15mins drive off the M5 near Bristol. We visit each time we're passing on our way to Devon. I really love his treatment of the figure; made up of small pieces of iron which allows some light through and gives a delicate quality contrasting with the rusty patina. It looks as though each figure is identical and the way they link through their fingertips creates a beautiful rhythmic composition. I find these figures even more satisfying than Anthony Gormley's.
These are two of my favourite sculptures, (after the work of Rodin and Maillol of course) they're by Andrea Carlo Lucchesi; a Victorian whose work was more naturalistic than neo-classical. They are in the grounds at Chirk Castle, a National Trust property near Wrexham. I love these pieces and insist on photographing them each time I visit, I love their simple clean lines, taut and beautifully balanced.
This is Llyod Le Blanc putting finishing touches to Lizzie, this guy is a great sculptor himself and is extremely knowledgeable about bronze casting; having set up and run several foundries in his native Canada and over here in the UK. He is now based just outside Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, have a look at www.leblancfineart.com 
These photos were taken at a recent gig, I am very privileged to play bass in this band with two of my three sons; my eldest, Ben plays lead and sings as you can see, and my youngest son, Nathan plays piano and sings too. My other son Adam is indispensable as roadie! The vocalist Claire is an old colleague and friend from Hays with a super voice, and we have an even older friend Ben 2 playing on drums. We only do covers these days, including: Blondie, Sheryl Crowe, Shakira, Queen, ABBA, B52s etc. We have a lot of fun and only do enough gigs to ensure it doesn't spoil our enjoyment of playing live - I love this stuff!
