Of stones & sculpture

 

We are so fortunate to be able to walk to the stone shore of the cove to enjoy the stones and collect a few for art - see cut stones above. 

During the week I got to take such a walk on a blue sky day and enjoy the shore at low tide; and immerse myself in stones - see below.

I chose those stones that will have metal inlaid into them and cut the grooves into them with the diamond blade in my angle grinder - see following photos.

Today I started the process of bending and cutting 1.5mm metal wire-rod (silver and brass) and fitting it into the grooves in preparation for glueing.

On Saturday I had a young 8 year old lad from the village join me in the workshop aka garden shed to assemble a sculpture he wanted two make for the garden at his family's place. He chose the bits of timber and rust from our stash; and he decided the layout himself. Together we assembled the piece. See photo of the piece below - completed on the work bench.

He had specifically chosen a heavy metal bracket that could hold the piece on another heavy block of timber so that the work would sit at an angle and could be moved around the garden - See photo below of the completed piece open the gravel outside the workshop.

The piece was delivered yesterday afternoon and installed in a spot in the home garden he had chosen. What a grand thing to start creating art at such a young age.

Tweaking Loss

My Betrayal and Loss Exhibition (2023) art work Loss was purchased by Strathnaver Museum; and has been moved and is currently on show in the upstairs display area at Clachan Cafe and information centre adjacent to the museum.

Loss was a bit complicated to move given that it has 103 metal boats attached to a mesh wave; stones representing 5 fishing coves; and a sea of fabric. It was moved by museum staff. They had done a grand job; but I agreed that Fiona and I would tweak it a bit whilst over this trip - opening photo of me at work.

The main issues were that in reattaching some of the boats two layers of a couple of the waves were attached to each other (see photo above) and didn't allow the open rolling sense of the waves; some big stones were dominating the front of the piece; and in places the groups of boats were a bit dense. Using curved jewellery pliers Fiona I removed a number of boats; separated the wire; reattached boats; moved stones; and reformed a couple of waves. Following photos taken by Fiona reflect part of the tweaking process.

And as you can see from the photos below the artwork is generally more open; and continues to tell the story of the betrayal of people cleared from Strathnaver and forced to be come fishers - many lost their lives - see Letter XI in Donald MacLeod's Gloomy Memories.

 

Weathering wonderfully

 

It is a delight to return to our Scotland home and find the sculpture-assemblages in the yard weathering beautifully as you can see from the photos in this blog post - above and below.

A bit of detail

There are also some timbers weathering and waiting to be turned in new assemblages - at least two planned but not until we have Fiona's exhibition launched.

A bit more creative fun to be had during this visit to the cottage.

Trio of posts completed

 

I achieved my goal of finishing the three post sculpture today. A photo of the finished trio outdoors above. The photo below is of the completed posts in the workshop before heading outdoors.

A few more photos of the trio from different angles and with a couple of different backgrounds follow.

The trio is now stored away in the workshop awaiting installation.

This has been a grand project. I have: used my last 3m long 200mm square log of cypress pine; created posts with heaps of niches - inspired by a work at the back of Qld gallery of modern art; used most of the rusted metal that was lying around; and given myself the opportunity to scale down stuff in the workshop. The bonus of course is that there are now three gorgeous posts to go out into the world and to weather further.

Post progress

 

Over the last week I have been grabbing a bit of time here and there to add the rusty bits to the three posts that will make up my current post installation.  The rusty bits are mainly going into the niches I cut and chiselled into the posts.

I have set the three post up on a bench and am doing work an all three - ensuring I'm spreading like pieces of metal across the three posts.

Following are some images of some of the niches. The idea of the rust in the niches is to invite viewers to get closer to the posts to check out the beauty of each little arrangement in each niche - small rust artworks!!!

I'm hoping that I might get to finish the work over the weekend - but we will see. 

Niches and more niches

 

I have finished sawing, chiselling and rasping some 50 niches into the three 200mm square posts (above) that I cut  a week or so ago (below). Each of the posts are unique in height and the location of niches. The goal is get different views of the combination of the three posts. The sculpture is not three sculptures; but rather one sculpture created by the three posts.

The sawing, chiselling and rasping created a lot of chips and wood dust. Niches have been cut into every corner of each of the posts.

A few more photos of the posts from a few directions follow.

I will sand the posts across the grain with a very very coarse sand paper to add a texture; but also remove splinters, glue where I have repaired a post, dirt and marking lines. 

The next step after the sanding is to add rusty bits to the posts - both in the niches and on the surface. I won't be putting rust into every niche - some niches will just be beautiful negative spaces or resting ledges for insects and lizards etc.