#453 In the studio: The Briscoe Museum sculpture project

Currently in progress in the monument sculpture studio is a project for the 

Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas.  

The scope of the work includes two life-sized horses and an 

enormous panel depicting three running buffalo.  

The architectural panels are modeled in high-relief, cast in bronze, and presented as truncated fragments.

Below, is an image of the three enormous architectural panels in progress.

Relief work is demanding and the sculptor must understand how much projection is 

necessary to "trick" the viewer's eye into perceiving rounded form.

Below, are images which show horse panel number one in progress. 

Working from a maquette, which is a small version of the work to be enlarged, 

the sculpture is first blocked in by carving very dense foam, then the foam is covered with clay and modeled.

Below, is an image which shows making corrections and adjustments on the sculpture . . . 

carving the foam, then modeling the horse's ear.

When designing Equus Found I and II architectural panels, my goal was to create an 

expressive silhouette and present the partial figure as a self-sufficient artistic entity.  

To achieve this, I eliminated limbs and stripped down detail and projections, which inhibited the figure's force and clarity.  

  Below, are two images of the Equus Found I and II maquette. . . presented in two different ways. 

A maquette is a small version of the large monument . . . 

it is the precursor to and the genesis of the enlarged monument.

Note: A design adjustment has been made on Equus I, the horse on the left in the first image . . .
the body of the figure has been widened to show the root of the tail in the monument.

More about the Briscoe Western Art Museum sculpture project - 

including the enormous buffalo architectural panel -  in upcoming posts.
http://www.briscoemuseum.org

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