Labour of Love

Hello everyone

Sore hands from moulding the wire bodies, six months of solid knitting, countless balls of wool later, and 'The Hunt' was born.

'The Hunt' by Hannah Haworth.

I kid you not, the amount of painstaking work that has gone into this installation is mind-boggling. Hannah even made the sledge herself from found green oak. A true labour of love. It reminds me of a really gorgeous Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, 'The Wild Swans'. Read it here if you're not familiar with it:

http://hca.gilead.org.il/wild_swa.html

I'm not sure if you can tell from the images (look at Hannah's page on the website), that this is a large scale work.

However, its not just that it's visually impressive and satisfying to look at. The concept behind the work is equally beautiful and thought provoking; based on an old Inuit Folktale. All this from such a young artist (Hannah's only 21). I think Hannah's work is very special indeed and I intend to enjoy the precious time I will have with 'The Hunt'.

If you are passing you simply must come in to see and learn more about 'The Hunt'....it's not something you will see everyday! Then, once you've recovered from the excitement you will get an eyeful of some particularly fine paintings.

 Not sure it gets much better!

So Farewell Then, My Splendid Stag.....

Some of you may remember a blog entry back in October about the amazing wire and recyled biscuit tin sculptures by the brilliant Barbara Franc.  I know I waxed lyrical about their quality and their beauty, and clearly I am not alone in seeing this.  Since first introducing Barbara's work to Scotland in October, a number of pieces have found a new home in these parts. 
The latest to move on to pastures new is Splendid Stag; that charming, ironic and handsome chap that has been greeting everyone as they come into the gallery over the last two months.
Last Friday, I delivered Splendid Stag to his new residence in the Borders - a beautiful converted Kirk, where he has the company of a fine Alsation and where he looks absolutely at home, standing guard over the lovely galleried hall.
Here he is, on the floor in the gallery, getting ready to be wrapped for the journey,
And here he is, in situ in his new home

Although you can't tell from this image, it really is the perfect place for him.
One of the things I love about Barbara's work is the painstaking attention to detail that is evident everywhere and which always add to the pleasure of owning a work of art.  For instance, we only recently found out that Barbara signs each piece by writing her surname in wire somewhere on the body of the sculpture...all you have to is find it.

In the case of Splendid Stag, it is on his neck, whereas on Little Donkey it's to be found on his stomach.  I have never seen this on a wire sculpture before, and we have had great fun looking for it on each piece we have had.
There are still a couple of Barbara Franc sculptures in the gallery, and I am delighted to be able to tell you that there will be more arriving in 2010.

Something New at UG

We are always on the lookout for new and different sculpture for the gallery.  I have especially been trying to find some really high quality glass work to display.  There is a lot of blown glass around, but I was looking for something a bit special, and I am really pleased to be able to say I have found it.

Jessica Irena Smith is a young glass sculptor from County Durham who has been introduced to us by artist Trevor Jones.  Having seen images of her work online, I knew we were looking as something special and, when she came in this week to show us her work, that was confirmed.  Jessica casts her glass bases in a kiln, using the ancient lost wax process.  Without going into excessive detail, this is very similar to the process of making a bronze sculpture, although somewhat more risky as you are working with glass.  To put things into perspective, a larger sculpture like 'Large Sheep Column', below, lives in the kiln for fully 6 days to ensure that the piece cools evenly and therefore not creating stresses in the glass.



















The glass is then hand finished, to create a perfect, smooth, beautiful finish, and then the small cast bronze scultures are added.  Jessica has the lovely little bronzes cast for her by a specialist foundry in Birmingham, and then hand finishes them herself.

So you end up with a sculpture of charm and humour, created with real craft and real perserverence.  The sheep are Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep which look somewhat similar to goats.  A trip to the Rockies, seeing these lovely beasts in their natural environment, proved to be the inspiration. 

We have 3 different examples of the series: the Large Sheep Column, above, and:

Small Sheep Column (a trio), and:

the brillant Wall of Sheep

The detail in the work, along with the quality of the finish, is really astounding.  You only have to look at Jessica's working drawings, which she has been kind enough to share with us, to get an idea of the toil and the creative process that is required to produce such beautiful figures:



I love these sketches... they are fun, but they also tell you quite a bit about the thought process and the work that goes into creating these sculptures.

I can't wait to see more of her work next year.

New Arrival.....

What's in the box?

I have been looking forward to this.......

Pleased to meet you!

Introducing a new arrival...."Who's There", a beautiful bronze sculpture by Carl Newman.  Carl has been a professional sculptor for 15 years now and his work is proving very popular in the gallery. He has been extremely organised at providing us with his work and informing us of new pieces.

I even liked the box he arrived in...... like a real little animal's nest. Very cosy!

And this is Carl Newman. A little insight to a fine sculptor at work.