#134 In the studio: Pheasant still life . . .

Hanging Grouse Alexander Pope
Photo courtesy National Museum of Wildlife Art

The "gamepiece" - the still life with game - was beautifully painted by 17th century Dutch painters such as Jan Weenix and Melchior d'Hondecoeter.  In the 18th century Jean Baptiste Oudry continued the genre.  Today, Ken Carlson and Thomas Aquinas Daly carry on the tradition.

As an art student at the Kansas City Art Institute I was fascinated and influenced by 19th century American painters William Harnett and Alexander Pope who painted incredible tromp i'oeil sportsmen's still life masterpieces. While other students were studying  Abstract Expressionism, I was immersed in representational subject matter that I grew up with in rural Oklahoma.

Executed in high relief, my new pheasant still life sculpture is meant to be a decorative wall hanging.  My goal was to present the pheasant rooster with clarity of contour and expressive form . . . not as a dead bird.  
The upright vertical axis of the new sculpture creates logical balance of mass and quiet simplicity of form.

                                                                                                                                 www.wildlifeart.org/

Life-sized pheasant gamepiece in progress

  

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Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish