Studio Diary; Return to the Figurative

August 19, 2014 by Rebecca Buck

in progress, July 2014

An intense couple of months ending in a merciful bereavement has lead me back to the clear boundaries and challenges of Figurative sculpture. Portrait skills are hard won and need to be practiced regularly or they will be lost.

I’ve been playing around with the technique of building outwards from a framework that wont be hollowed out later and/or is a visible part of the form for a couple of years now and I wanted to try it with naturalistic work.

The River,a commission. 1.5 m high

Half a Century II, 48cm H x 32cm W.

I started with the exercise Lloyd Lilly taught us at Boston Uni (about 300 years ago); Make the skeleton and layer on the muscles and skin. It is fascinating to do and hugely informative. These are the skills that give Abstract work presence.

Anyone who has taken one of my Workshops will tell you, with tears in their eyes, that the key to figurative work is organising the huge amount of information into manageable stages and that the Skeleton is just a stick figure with the perfect proportions simplified for you. I’m not sure how I manage to be so thick but once again I made a clay armature for a bust that allowed the head to tip forward. Good thing I have that red broom on hand to prop it up.

With the 2nd one I made a much more interesting frame that would show in places.

in progress August 2014

It allowed me to work on the whole form from the outset rather than build from the bottom up. I’m pushing myself hard to use new methods rather than fall into the same ol’ pitfalls and to be more expressive with the naturalistic format rather than only technical. I’ve done that many times before… but the results were pretty dire! This may also be yet anther very bad road but it’s the only route to get somewhere interesting. I’m aiming to integrate the figure with it’s landscape following the ideas of the Up Is Down Series. Wish me luck….!

Clay armature for a bust, aug 2014

This clay armature is much stronger and the hollow spaces are more defined as part of the form good and early. The plan is to work towards integrating the Landscape work I’ve been doing with Cameraman Steve Foote using his stunning photographs.

Bracelet Bay, Mumbles, Swansea by Steve Foote

Bracelet Bay, Mumbles, Swansea by Steve Foote.

Brecon Beacons, by Steve Foote.

Porth Yr Ogof Cave, Brecon Beacons, by Steve Foote.

This could take a while….

Studio Diary, The Tumble Commission, part 6.

July 3, 2014 by Rebecca Buck

You learn a lot about your own work from watching a skilled Photographer taking pictures of it. You get a more objective view. The lights are certainly a merciless test of your planes and edges. Stephen Foote’s top quality lenses will pick up every flaw.

I went over the whole piece with fine portrait tools and his perfect pictures reward that. I’m very inspired by the excellent craftsmanship of stone or glass artists like Sally Fawkes (http://www.sallyfawkes.com ) her process is incredibly harsh and difficult yet she doesn’t back off until her stunning sculptures are flawless. Clay is way easier but avoiding marks when you are handling the piece is a constant battle

Sally Fawkes ‘Perceiving Significance II’ photo ;Richard Jackson

After a spell of controlled drying it’s time cut the sections. Luckily I have a fantastic Assistant, Michael Preece. I spent a lot of time planning the cuts; we have opted for large sections and I needed to ensure they would fit in the kiln and be handleable. Mike used a variety of tools to make the cuts and he and my son Daniel lifted the sections to thick memory foam where they will stay for at least a month.

Working in clay you always have an eye on the Drying and Firing -Plan; accommodating these long drying periods where the atmosphere needs to be controlled and having the right sized pieces ready to pack nice full kilns that will distribute the heat evenly.

I went round all the edges of the cuts and tidied them and repaired any dings. I will cover the sections with sheets to ward off drafts and turn them regularly. Most cracks form at this stage although they may not show up until after the Firing.

Studio Diary April 15

April 15, 2014 by Rebecca Buck

Up Is Down- in progress

Not sure about the results yet; they will change hugely when they are fired apart from anything else, but the method is working. These pieces are built solid from layered different clays that all have the same shrinkage and firing temperature so they shouldn’t crack at the joins… IF the joins are good…The main form is done in one go,thick. Then, once it is firm enough a lot of extraction is done. This shows up the colours.

Up Is Down- in progress

These are not meant to be portraits of rocks. The pieces are meant to have implicit forces running through the form causing the curves and the form creating a flow to the forces – exactly what happens as the tide ebbs and flows through the stones at Bracelet Bay. The Sculptures are about us. (see earlier posts about Up is Down)

Up Is Down- in progress

At last these are properly 360 sculptures! I turn them over and in every direction as I carve,focussing on getting that flow to run past and into the surfaces,up and down.

Tidying and polishing takes forever because of keeping the white clays clear. An old, rough e-cloth is very helpful just on the white areas, used dry.

Up Is Down- in progress

Studio Diary 25 March 2014

March 25, 2014 by Rebecca Buck

Up Is Down is a fascinating theme that is leading down all kinds of roads. Only time will tell how many of them are very bad….a percentage of my work is regularly too awful to fire – that’s the price of experimenting and taking risks.

I’m working for a very creative Company in the USA involving fire. And I have started a collaboration with Photographer Stephen Foote (see Links for his Web-site) Both of these projects are benefitting from the early work of Up Is Down and now they are leading it with the movement and pull of forces and the changes that leaves on a form.

Music is still key. A central space for Fire and the intension to have no

or little base is a starting

template for the clay-armatures.

Steve and I visited Bracelet Bay in the Mumbles, Swansea,one of the first of many spectacular beaches around the Gower Peninsula. It was a strange, foggy day, very atmospheric, with the Fog-horn sounding in the mist. The feeling of the draw and strength of tidal waters pulling through the forms of stone is accentuated by faces covered in barnacles and pebbles left behind.

Steves pictures will be the reference point for the next batch of Up Is Down pieces.

The resulting Sculptures will then potentially inform his next set of Pictures. And so on until it runs out of steam.

Rebecca Buck

Osprey Studios, contemporary sculpture. Phone: 07913743457

Tag Archives: Swansea

Studio Diary; Return to the Figurative

Studio Diary, The Tumble Commission, part 6.

Studio Diary 25 March 2014

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