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Here I remove the lower waste wood, mount the sculpture on a typical Hepworth stand and seal/finish the surface.
Hepworth also used to paint the holes in a lot of her sculpture, to make more of the space and, in the end, that's what I did. I used artist's acrylic paint to create a light creamy colour that felt in harmony with the wood. Others colours might work well for your own piece. The nice thing about acrylics is that they are readily over-paintable when they are dry, so you can keep working until you find the effect you like. I'd also suggest that you don't use pure white; it's very dominant and distracts from the whole. Rather find something mellower and harmonious.
Download: Thoughts about Hepworth and her sculpture; why I'm using hand tools and not power, and 'direct carving'. Also wood and tools etc.
| 26 August 2020 20:04
Thank you Chris!
I will continue to search for a good wood source, at some point I should be lucky!! I like the idea of maquettes meanwhile!.
Regards!
| 26 August 2020 16:57
Iria - Thanks for the kind words! The wood is Yew (Taxus baccata), which I chose for the lovely figuring. Normally I use bland woods for my carving, which is all about light and shadow; string figuring would camouflage the details. Where there are wide, clear surfaces you want some interest in the surface - woodturners know this.
I think you need to wait until you can lay your hands on better wood; you will be putting a lot of effort in and since the wood costs are really very small you shouldn't compromise.
When it comes to splits, me, I'd leave them as 'truth to the materials' rather than try and hide or disguise them. Filling rarely works well; people notice and surmise, whereas, with a split it's - hey, that's wood for you.
By all means make little maquettes with your firewood but, while you are doing that, source a lump of 'good' wood. Woodturners might have a block you can buy?
| 24 August 2020 19:31
Chris, congratulations, it does look amazing! I am not familiar with the work of Hepworth or modern art (I just google it), but the grain in the final sculpture is just so beautiful that it gets you keep looking (and want to touch). What wood did you use??
Also...I may try something like this (smaller) in the future, but all the wood I can access too is more or less firewood, so most of the trunks are split because of drying lying somewhere to the sun/rain. Do you think that if I end up with some split in the middle of the form, will it be possible to fill it with glue (+ dust or wood as in your repair video), or even colored epoxy (I am seeing lately a lot of epoxy + wood combinations for decorative purposes), but I am not sure... What do you think?
Thanks!
