The Wyvern IV, Sept 2014
The frame-work for this one was much more developed and lead the form. I made a second one so I could keep the flow going around the drying periods but I didn’t need to break from Wyvern IV; it was strong enough.
Frame-work for The Wyvern IV.
This is asking a lot of a clay. But this is Scarva ES50 again and reckon I’ll get away with it.
The tortuous kiln-loadings/ fab firings of the Tumble Commission are nearly back on schedule.The Landscape Project started in April with photographer Stephen Foote (http://www.stephenfootephotography.co.uk )getting some depth.Time to review it and have a bit of a think…
Up is Down IX, 57cm W,
Bracelet Bay , Stephen Foote.
Up Is Down- in progress
Up Is Down- in progress
Bracelet Bay, Mumbles, Swansea by Steve Foote.
in progress, Aug 2014.
Bracelet Bay, Mumbles, Swansea by Steve Foote
Before the Busts and while the Tumble Commission was drying we did the trip to Porth Yr Ogof Cave near here and spent some hours in there setting up photographs. Steve was very busy with his thing and I held lights and stopped the groups of excited, awe-struck children Caving from bumping into equipment. It gave me a long time to stand in the shallow river in the darkness listening to the echoes of voices and water disappearing into the mountain’s warren of tunnels. Amongst many other fabulous ones Steve got this picture
Porth Yr Ogof Cave, Brecon Beacons, by Stephen Foote.2014
and over the following month I made these pieces; 
They are 30cm wide or less, each one has a central ‘cave’ and some naturalistic elements. This was when the narrative involving the Wyvern joined in. The Bird is the above -ground landscape from the Tumble Commission and the Whale is the water… beautiful images full of movement….
I am privileged to have special access to the excellent writer Daniel Buck (http://altamiraultimatum.co.uk). He is heavily involved in the story-telling in digital Games and other contemporary Media and we regularly disscuss the myths and icons of the Natural World. He knows my work better than anyone and has been an invaluable influence.I am going to turn to him next and see what frame work he might see in this.
Up is Down IX, 20cm H x 49cm L x 31cm D, £800
The Up Is Down Series started in November 2013. As often happens there was a progression from a previous Series ( the Edge). I knew there was a shift, and I knew what it was about, but couldn’t find the words for it. Sculpture is my ‘first language’, the one I think in and use to work out my understanding of the world. This is how it goes for many Artists, it’s not unusual.
Up is Down V, back view. Links to The Edge Series are obvious in this piece.
I’ve been describing our perceived borders in The Edge Series but we don’t actually possess clear borders; the cloud of particles and especially bacteria that make up us dissipates and interacts with our surroundings and fellows , interchanging constantly. When you leave the Forest some of it comes with you , some of you is left behind.We are constructed from atoms that have been used to form countless other things since the Big Bang. After death those atoms will move on to build other parts of the World. As my son put it beautifully when he was 5 ; ”So we become part of the mountain? Good.”
Up is Down V, 44cm H x 58cm L x 50cm D, £1700. The Osprey theme recurs constantly in my work. Ospreys make their living crossing the boarders between the earth,the sky and water.
Up is Down VII, back view. Many of these pieces relate to the Half A Century Series.
Up is Down VIII, 18cm H x 43cm L x 30cm D, £800
Up is Down VI, 25cm H x 31cm L x 17cm D, £1100
http://www.sciencemusings.com/2008/01/key-to-riddle.html
by Chet Raymo
‘Behind the apparent decay and new growth the atoms endure, those mysterious and eternal particles that contain within themselves tendencies to combine and recombine in endlessly creative ways.
The church, the village, the rank tropical growth, the creatures that creep and fly and crawl are composed of recycled star dust, atoms forged billions of years ago in hot, massive stars, here woven by the hands of energy and entropy into a fabric of gorgeous complexity.
I went there for the same reason the naturalist/scientist Rachel Carson went to the edge of the sea. She wrote: “Underlying the beauty of the spectacle there is meaning and significance. It is the elusiveness of that meaning that haunts us, that sends us again and again into the natural world where the key to the riddle is hidden.”’
Up is Down IV, 31cm H x 58cm L x 37cm D, £1200
The title, Up Is Down, came from Hans Zimmer, the fabulous Composer and his brilliant piece of the same name in Pirates of The Caribbean III. I have all 4 Pirates , Rango,and The Lone Ranger sound-tracks on shuffle most of the time these days. Fantastic stuff,full of wild leaps of emotion , heady ideas and humour. His version of The William Tell Overture for The Lone Ranger is hilarious and wonderful.
Like the Up Is Down scene in Pirates III,”At Worlds End” this Series breaks away from the normal parameters that have defined my forms, particularly the base contacting with the table. It will take me a while to get this right but in theory the Sculptures can be turned and displayed any way you like ; the full 360 should have impact. The weight of the wet clay makes this very difficult to pull off….! I’ll get there. I will work smaller to reduce the weights and allow me to move through new forms more quickly. It is a massive challenge for someone who started out as a Vessel builder seeped in the tradition of the classic Vase form with it’s reliable base. But even in my earliest work , 30 years ago , that base kept trying to disappear. A-symatry and unlikely balance have always been my trade-marks.
Up is Down VII, 23cm H x 40cm L x 18cm D, £1200
This piece still has a ‘base’ but it has nearly gone. It is not necessary to loose the base for the piece to make sense; I work to Themes but I don’t set rigid rules because that would be trite. It is very difficult to trust that the Forms will evolve in a valuable way given the freedom but if you don’t this work-meathod is meaningless. The idea is too prepare your craftsmanship, memory and sub-concious with as much expertise as you can. Then you add Music and give your hands and clay free reign.
A new Up Is Down in progress
Up is Down I ,41cm H x 80cm L x 48cm D, £1400 In Progress
Up Is Down II in progress
Extracts from J.P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth, London, 1961, Two Conversations with Barbara Hepworth: ‘Art and Life’ and ‘The Ethos of Sculpture’, pp. 23–24(in conversation with J.P. Hodin, 18 August 1959)
“Art at the moment is thrilling. The work of the artist today springs from innate impulses towards life, towards growth – impulses whose rhythms and structures have to do with the power and insistence of life. […] In the past, when sculpture was based on the human figure, we knew this structure well. But today we are concerned with structures in an infinitely wider sense, in a universal sense. Our thoughts can either lead us to life and continuity or […] the way to annihilation. That is why it is so important that we find our complete sense of continuity backwards and forwards in this new world of forms and values. I see the present development in art as something opposed to any materialistic, anti-human or mechanistic direction of mind.”
Up Is Down III, 20cm H x 40cm L x 29cm D, £800
Detail, Up Is Down VII
Detail,Up Is Down VI
River Harbinger, 125cm H, at Wyndcliffe Court Sculpture Garden.
The River Series is an off shoot of the Wind Water Fire series merged with the Harbingers. It coalesced here in the Beacons in 2012 after 12 years in the stunning Upper Rhondda surrounded by waterfalls.
Blaenrhondda, Rhondda Valley
The rivers in the Rhondda ran black with coal dust for decades. Now you can drink the sparkling, icy water.
Wind Water Fire III. 1m H.
When I first tried the Scarva black clays about 3 years ago I made a number of reclining figures and harbingers many of which were so awful they got recycled! But this one with a water theme I have hung onto knowing I wasn’t done with it. A lot of the work from it is now showing up in The Edge landscapes. Moss and lichens are the perfect finishing touch.
Reclining River Harbinger, 80cm L.
I’ve been off down various roads with it, some of them dreadful!! I’m definatly not done with it .
Like the Harbingers it is an environmental theme about the land and our relationship with it. Knowing you have drinking water running clear near your home is a treasure that means more to us all than we dare to think.
After the move to the Brecon Beacons I found we had this stunning river just below our new home. It is the river of the Henrhydd Falls, south Wales’s tallest Falls made famous by the last Batman movie.
I go there several times a week for the peace and beauty.
The River, 1.5m, commission, 2012.
River Harbinger, 125cm H.
Rebecca Buck 