More affordable sculpture

These four sculptures are currently on exhibition at the Royal Birmingham Society of Arts until Christmas Eve. I carved the originals in limestone and then made moulds from which I cast these reproductions in Jesmonite. Jesmonite is a composite material used by museums and galleries around the world to create replicas of their prize works.

I use my own blend of aggregates to add to the Jesmonite which allow me to create these pieces with the look and feel of polished limestone. Cast solid in editions of 100, each piece is signed and hand-finished by me using exactly the same tools that I use for my carved originals. And importantly these sculptures are available at a price one-third that of my investment bronzes, making these more affordable sculptures available to a wider audience.

Primavera

73 x 25 x 20 cm.

Primavera (Spring) is the first in a series of four sculptures, my Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons) series. Each sculpture depicts a female torso morphing into a plant form, representing a season of the year. With Primavera the figure has the head of a crocus with the hands and facial features just beginning to reveal themselves as the new growth of Spring emerges.

Reclining Torso

57 x 14 x 15 cm.

Carved originally from a shard of Cotswold limestone, the female figure in Reclining Torso is gradually revealed as if found in an archaeological dig.

The Sun-Worshipper

38 x 30 x 4.5 cm.

Carved in relief, again from a block of limestone, The Sun-Worshipper was inspired by a lizard sunning itself against a wall outside my studio one summer's day..

Arch

30 x 31.5 x 5 cm.

Arch is another relief carving with the figure sitting within an arched window.  

Sculpting a Drawing

This red chalk drawing, measuring 48 x 48 in., shows the view north over the Kennet Valley in Wiltshire towards the village of Minal from Chopping Knife Lane. In the foreground is Black Field, the site of the old Roman town of Cunetio, and in the top left hand corner can be seen the old Roman road which leads from Cunetio to Cirencester in Gloucestershire. The cattle were grazing down in the water meadow and you can see the houses and the old school along the river before the fields rise on the other side of the valley towards South Leaze Field and beyond.

At the time when I drew the original sketches it was October 2009 and all the crops were in, leaving just stubble, save for a one field of maize towards the top right. The trees still had their leaves but were changing colour and the vegetation all around the field edges; thistles, nettles and cow parsley, was beginning to die back.

The work started off life as a series of quick sketches, the main one of which from my moleskine sketchbook is seen below, drawn while I was out for a walk one late afternoon.


From the sketches I developed the drawing in my studio in red chalk pastel. Perhaps it is my background as a sculptor but I like to draw on heavyweight papers which I can work back into to almost carve the drawing out of the paper. As well as rubber erasers, I use knifes, wire brushes and even power tools such as a Dremel and a Black & Decker Mouse orbital sander. To stop myself from getting into detail too soon I use fat sticks of Sennelier chalk pastel which are at least an inch in diameter for laying down broad areas of colour and flakes for more fine work.


The original 122 x 122 cm. drawing been digitally captured by specialists and is now available as a signed limited edition giclée print in three image sizes; 30 x 30 cm., 50 x 50 cm. and 90 x 90 cm

A Marriage of Form and Dance

I've just added a set of new images of my bronze sculpture, "Twisting Form", to my flickr site. These images show the work from different angles. In doing so they reveal the inspiration for the work. As a visitor to my flickr site has commented, they are "a real marriage of female and organic forms and dance" (sic).

I thought it was a most apt description of this piece which started off as an organic abstraction from the maquette for my figurative sculpture, "Primavera". "Twisting Form"then picked up some Latin American rythms as I worked, listening to CD's of Cuban Jazz.

See all seven in the set for yourself on flickr by clicking here .

RA Summer Exhibition - an artist's view

The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition runs until 16th August 2009. It's a bit like the FA Cup for the art world where the work of the "journeymen" of the art world can rub shoulders with that of UK and international stars like Damien Hirst, Sir Anthony Caro, Frank Stella and Cy Twombly.

And to pursue my footballing analogy a little further, the minnows are often blown away by the scale, ambition and sheer class of the Premiership players. But sometimes there are bravura performances by the lesser known participants whose work stands up well in this august company. So, here are my own personal selection of pieces which caught my eye, and I hope might catch yours on your own visit.

The first is 26 Enchanteresse by Allen Jones RA, the sculptor and painter. A half-life size bronze female figure standing on a stainless steel plinth, her body is painted to look as if she were wearing a green skin tight body suit. Very much in the style of his sensual mannekin figures, this sculpture greets you in Room I as you enter the exhibition.

There are two large woodcut prints by Katsutoshi Yuasa, 79 28 and 85 Echoes, which stood out for me in the Large Weston Room. Both are large in scale but have a delicate quality about them which give them the air of a faded photographic image, or memory. On the adjacent wall hang the etchings of academician, Norman Ackroyd; 112 Sybil Head - Co Kerry, 113 The Cliffs of Moher and 114 From Sutton Bank - Vale of York. His etchings always have a wonderfully moody quality about them.

The Small Weston Room defeated me as usual. Every square inch is covered virtually from floor to ceiling and my eyesight just isn't up to working out what is going on in these small paintings as I crane my neck heavenwards. Terribly popular with the public, looking for affordable purchases and able to put up the cramped viewing space, I lasted only a few minutes on a hot and humid June day. But during that time I did hover, perhaps predictably being a sculptor myself, over James Butler RA 's relief bronze 438 Portrait of a Girl Sitting in a Chair.

Very different to this traditional form and medium are two sculptures by Yoshimi Kihara, intriguingly made of folded newspaper; 680 Transmission .F in Room IV and 982 T. Circle in Room VII.

Room V offered a big, bold, dramatic, conte drawing by Jeanette Barnes, 753 Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, which buzzed with the energy and activity of the construction activity captured in the drawing. This room also contains my own choice for "best in show", the sculpture, 766 Deep Red Line by Jay Battle. A pure white, simple egg-like organic form in alabaster it is incised with geometric lines of red pigment, capturing my attention with it's originality and simplicity.

That leads into the Will Alsop curated Room VI, for the architecture exhibits. Will Alsop has had the room painted black to show the architectural models, amongst which he has also included some small sculptures, to best effect. A great innovation, my only complaint might be that some of the exhibits were exhibited too high to be seen properly and that there were perhaps just too many exhibits for the space. Highlights for me were: 780 L'Ex Monastero by Lidia Palumbi, 811 Embodied Contours by Ben Cowd and Tobias Klein, Renzo Piano's study model for the roof of California Academy of Sciences 842, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw's models for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre in Troy New York 839 and 928 Remodulated Environment by Alexander Mills. All in all, I found this room to be the most stimulating and refreshing in the whole exhibition and well worth visiting for this alone.

Julian Opie had an interesting computer animation, 1073 View from my Kitchen Window in Room IX, which perhaps signals some possibilities in digital art but for my last two recommendations I return to more traditional media. The Lecture Room contains the well over life-size, disturbing sculpture in carved limewood by Michael Sandle RA, 1200 Iraq, The Sound of your Silence and an oil painting in the classical tradition of some engimatic monkish heads in white hoods all facing an unseen focus off, 1119 Silent Reflection, by George Underwood.

The Summer Exhibition offers something for everyone amongst its 1200+ exhibits and I am sure I missed some great work but I content myself with having having the opportunity to have seen the gems above. I hope you will be intrigued enough to seek them out on your own visit and I am sure you will find others.

"Primavera" - Spring is in the air

The first of this series of four sculptures, each representing a season of the year as a female torso morphing into a plant form, is also now available for 2009 in more affordable stone-composite as well as a limited edition bronze.

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Spring or "Primavera" is represented by a slim female torso emerging like a snowdrop from the depths of winter. The petals around her head open to reveal her face mask slowly taking form as do the protective arms around her upper torso.

The original for this sculpture was carved in dark grey Kilkenny Limestone from which the limited edition of only 6 bronzes was cast. This new version is cast solid in Jesmonite composite mixed with a blend of stone aggregates to give the look and feel of polished, buff-coloured limestone. Because all the work is done by myself in the studio I am able to ensure that the accuracy and finish of each cast is true to the carved stone original.

The contrast of textures, very much a signature aspect of my work, accentuates the sensuality of the smooth forms which are dramatised by the light.

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The sculpture, which stands 73 cm. tall, is available direct from my studio as one of a limited edition of 100, mounted on a round base of Jesmonite with a dark grey granite finish.

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The Prezzo restaurant chain has now installed one of this edition of Primavera, which they comissioned last year for one of their newest outlets in Camberley, Surrey.

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Both images © Gordon Aitcheson 2009

At the Feet of the Master

When in London I often visit the top floor of the Royal Academy just to see the Taddei Tondo, a four feet diameter circular marble relief by Michelangelo, the only piece of his sculpture in the UK. Missed by many visitors to the temporary exhibitions at the RA it is beautifully lit in a recess at the end of the Sackler Wing, furthest from the lift. I feel so privileged to be able to study the sculpture at such close quarters and generally quite uninterrupted, save for the lost souls looking for somewhere where they can furtively use their mobile phones.

Like many of Michelangelo's works the Taddei Tondo is unfinished and the tool marks reveal much about how he was approaching the piece, a bit like being able to see the underdrawing of a great painting. You can see where he is still roughing out with the point, modelling the forms with the claw and then refining the forms of the finished passages as was his working method. I always come away reinvigorated, inspired by Michelangelo’s energy, ambition and craftmanship and return to my studio the next day, eager to pick up my tools and address the block of stone on the carving stand.

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