"Wilbur"...

Last week I completed one of the individual projects I have going at the same time as working on the "deadly sins" project. It was a lovely feeling to finally complete a piece after so much preliminary work on a range of other things. This little guy is Wilbur, and I like to think of him as a gentle soul, contemplating one of the tiniest miracles of life.

He has been sculpted in polymer clay on a wire armature and painted in my usual way with acrylic paints. The photo at the bottom with magenta skin is the undercoat color I use for almost all of my skin tones.

The tree-trunk base that he is sitting on is also sculpted from polymer clay, as are the 'fly agaric' toadstools. The dried fungus and snail shells are real. All of the fabrics and fibers used for Wilbur's costume have been hand-dyed and are completely hand-sewn. His shoes and his back-pack are sculpted and painted by hand.

So, now it's on to the next one....quite different in theme, but should also be challenging and fun. WIP pictures as soon as I can.

Till next time.

Head designs for the last three 'sins' complete.

Over the past two days I've managed to complete the head studies for all seven 'sins'. Now that I have an idea of how I want them to look, I can work on body construction, pose and costuming and also decide on a size for each piece. While the temptation to make them big and imposing is very strong, I don't think it will be practical given that I need to complete them all before August. Still, it's early days and I'm sure it will all work out as I go along.

Till next time.

Individual side-projects.

In addition to the larger projects I'm undertaking this year, there are a few unfinished individual pieces that I hope to complete.

This rather pensive (and regrettably warty) little dude is starting to take shape and should make a nice piece when I've finished sculpting his seat and figured out his costume.

Over the next few months I will also be updating my website, so please forgive any glitches in the meantime, although I sincerely hope that I can keep them to a minimum.

Meanwhile, our new puppy, Milligan is settling in beautifully and is proving to be a very intelligent cookie indeed.....I can only hope that he'll use his powers for good and not evil.

Till next time.

Old project, new vision.....

Well the New Year has come and gone and with it went the promise I made to myself to blog at least once a week. What happened? Well, too much actually, most of it far too dull to relate but aggravatingly time consuming nonetheless. So I'm going to pretend that January didn't happen and in that case I'm right on track.

Last year I decided that I wanted to create a "fae" version of the Seven Deadly Sins. I got as far as sculpting two of them (gluttony and vanity) before realising that I wasn't thrilled with what I had created and so I put the project on the back burner and moved on to other things. During the month that never was, I found myself returning to the idea with renewed interest and after making a few drawings am excited about the project all over again.

I still have to finalise the designs for the last three sins, but already this feels much more cohesive to me. I'm really trying to move away from 'human' looking faeries to concentrate more on creatures and making all of the sins Goblin-like seems somehow appropriate.

The seven resulting sculptures and their accompanying drawings will form my SALA exhibition later in the year. I'm still planning to produce a small book for the exhibition and also a new line of cards and bookmarks.

I will be creating other unrelated pieces during this time as well as updating my website and re-starting work on another project that I'll spill the beans on at a later date.

A busy and exciting year!

Till next time.

Completed piece.....

Well, here it is almost December already and my favourite holiday fast approaching. This is the worst time of year for me as far as my concentration level is concerned.....there is so much going on with winding up the end of the year and there never seems to be enough time to do everything. I'm not complaining though....unfortunately I'm one of those annoyingly cheerful people who love the hustle and bustle, the copious amounts of fairy lights, the cheesy movies and everything else that goes along with the season....well, almost everything. Stress and drama I can do without and honestly, if you can't make an effort to be pleasant at this time of year, what hope is there?

All that aside, I managed to complete this piece yesterday and while they are still not named, I do know that they are two old friends who have shared much in their lives and are completely comfortable and at ease with each others company.

I'm hoping to create one more piece before I take a break over Christmas and replace the clay with gingerbread and fruitcake.

Till next time.

New piece in progress....

So, a number of things have kept me from blogging, facebooking, twittering etc. of late. Not that I'm exactly what you'd call 'prolific' regarding any of these....I just find it very difficult to spend that much time on my computer....but this has definitely been a 'less productive than usual' couple of months for me.

Aside from a general feeling of melancholy (a common occurrence but no less irritating for that), I've been having some major dental work which has involved extraction of wisdom teeth among other delights. I have a classic textbook fear of going to the dentist (heart racing, sweats, sleep disturbance and on and on) and although I have found a wonderful, gentle and sympathetic dental surgeon, the whole process is stressful and exhausting. Unfortunately, my dental health suffered very badly during chemotherapy several years ago and now I'm facing a considerable amount of repair work (partly my own fault of course for letting things go too long.....see *dental fear*). Anyway, the worst of it will soon be over and I've decided to have a break after my next appointment until the New Year. A Christmas season without anxiety is what I'm aiming for.

I've been working on the above piece for a couple of weeks and just finished painting them today. The first two shots were taken after firing and before painting and the next two are after the painting has been sealed. The next step is choosing fabrics and fibers for these two little friends and designing their costumes.

The drawing at the bottom is an idea for another 'Tree Faerie', this one not so frightening as the last. It's colored pencil and ink on cardboard, which is a new surface for me and one that I'm enjoying very much....although it does tend to lift if you muck about with it too much.

Before I go, my awesomely talented friend Linda Catchlove has just released a beautiful range of greeting cards featuring her incredible work. They are superb quality cards by a truly gifted artist and you can see and buy them here.

Till next time.

Tim Burton exhibition....

It's just over a week since we returned home from our holiday in Melbourne and the Grampians. Guy and I planned this trip way back last year when we found out that the Tim Burton exhibition was coming to ACMI. Being a borderline obsessive when it comes to his films, I have to say that this was THE most greatly anticipated exhibition I've ever attended.

It did not disappoint.

On the contrary, there was so much to see in this enormous collection of artwork, film, costume, models, notebooks, props etc, etc, it was often overwhelming....but in a very good way.

I was a little put off initially by the huge crowds of people but in actuality the slow-moving snake of visitors lining the gallery walls kept my excitement level in check and prevented me from running around like a maniac from one object to another. As it was, I was trying very hard not to look ahead to see what was coming up and so was surprised and delighted every few minutes! There was ample time to examine each piece in glorious detail.

While the big, drawcard pieces (costumes from "Alice", Batman, Edward Scissorhands etc.) were wonderful (Alice's shoes and the Mad Hatter's hat were particular favourites of mine), it was the smaller individual pieces, in particular the drawings and personal notebooks and letters, which gave me the most joy and the most insight. To see Tim's progression through his early years with the influences of Dr Suess, MAD Magazine and illustrators such as Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman (other favorites of mine) was fascinating and certainly something I could relate to personally, having grown up on these same influences myself.

There were also a large number of models built by Rick Heinrichs which were beautiful even in their decay (I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest when I saw the puppets of 'Vincent' and the long-suffering Abercrombie wearing the experimental headgear!) and the puppets for 'Corpse Bride', built by Mackinnon & Saunders were, without a doubt, some of the most exquisite objects I have ever seen.

Overall, it was the sheer volume of work by this man who is only a couple of years older than me, that was most inspiring. People like to imagine that to be an artist means that you must exist in a continual state of inspiration and creativity. That may be true for some (lucky them!),

but for most of us inspiration is minor compared to the amount of actual work that needs to be done to realise those precious ideas. Tim Burton has done the hard yards. He's weathered rejection, criticism and the worst kind of 'art snobbery' to bring to fruition his unique vision of an imperfect and totally fascinating world. It's plain, if the huge attendance numbers for this exhibition are anything to go by, that this is an artist who connects with people on a very human level. He certainly does with me.

(Sadly, cameras weren't allowed inside the exhibition, so the photos above are all I have to show.)

Till next time.