Kind Friends:
I must go to Colorado, likely to see my mother, Lou, out of this world within a few weeks. One thing I plan to do is post a lot more of her work. It would be a great thing to have your comments on it when I do, that I might share them with her. So, please check back here before too long -- perhaps a week or so!
My thanks for the kind and buoyant words so many have already sent and left -- it makes a great difference in the artist’s world.
My best,
Forest
In Kato Polyclay, with mohair.
Another piece by my mother, oil on canvas. She has sculpted and painted a large population of fauns and
greenmen.Friends: one of those human crises that rise up and shatter the round of one's daily world has reared its head here, and I may be MIA a while longer.
Meantime, many, many thanks for the bounty of kind words that you, gentle viewers, have left for me. I am no good at all with Time, at least not in its finite, measured guise, as you who've written me and not yet heard a peep will have gathered. But rest assured I hoard all you comments and questions, and you will eventually get an answer, antique though it may be...
Yours,
Forest
A Selkie and her Seal to appear soon... And I myself shall reappear, as well.
When she’s finished, this strange little hybrid herb-gatherer is going to live with a kind (and exceedingly patient) friend in London, who is herself an herbalist.
Kato Polyclay over full armature of gold-plated wire and Aves Fixit Sculpt. Wings are distressed silk gauze.
Brushed Kato Polyclay over gold-plated wire & archival tissue paper. The tissue paper & wire were coated with PVA glue and allowed to dry, supplying the clay with a congenial surface. Several colours of Pearl Ex powder, from Jacquard, were brushed on, as well. This was the first pair I made in this way, actually. Now I prepare to attach them to somebody.
In 1987 the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, launched its model dinosaur line, “The Carnegie Collection”. I’ve worked with them since the beginning of that series, creating each creature with the guidance of the Carnegie’s experts, and learning a great deal the process. This is Caudipteryx, first the polymer clay original, with two painted resin prototypes below. Needless to say, we have some leeway on the colour, though we try to refer to appropriate living species. I use either Kato Polyclay or Classic Fimo for these models, with inset glass-bead eyes.
A very tiny pair of friends. Kato Polyclay, with brush bristles, and
Genesis heat-set oil paints.
Lou is my mother. I aim to make a large gallery page of her work.
This faery is ready to fly to eBay, tonight or tomorrow. I’ll announce her debut
on my eBay mailing list (if you’d like to sign up for that, see the link at right). These are the same wings as pictured below, in the Jan. 29 entry. It’s harder to capture the colours when somebody’s wearing them! The faery would stand about 8 inches tall, were she not sitting on a mushroom. The fibers in her ‘skirt’ are distressed silk gauze, in very pale green & pink. I believe she is dressed for a fay event, but she did not tell me what that might be.
...where I'm working like mad, aiming at upcoming events.
I’m occasionally asked whether I draw my 3-D figures before I sculpt them. Well, sort of. Some people make beautifully precise drawings of their planned sculptures, while others...
Observe the grand scrabblings above: my plans for two pieces aimed at the
‘Magnum Opus’ figurative art exhibition next month. Yes, my great works. Anyone wanna guess what they are? One futile hint: there are a total of four figures within these scrawls, and not all of them are human.
Artists do it on paper napkins...
Magnum Opus: http://www.magnumopus-show.com
Divine Studio, 21 East Fourth St. NYC, 10 Feb. 2007
An old Selkie. Rather, an old picture of a young Selkie -- done perhaps ten years ago. Ink, watercolor pencil, with unorthodox (even uncouth) use of watercolor. Arches Hot Press paper, off a block, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, which are great if you favor drawing over painting, but desire colour.
I aim to do some more Selkies, in two and three dimensions.
And then there’s social media, of course: