#136 In the studio: Pheasants still life con't . . .

Clay County Birds by Ken Carlson
30 x 20

Yesterday the image of this beautiful still life was emailed to the studio by fellow artist and friend, Ken Carlson.  I couldn't help notice the masterful use of lost and found edges in the work.

Lost and found edges are necessary in three-dimensional art as well as painting. While modeling the new pheasant still life sculpture (see yesterday's blog) it was important to soften and lose edges.  I refrained from using too much detail and pattern and let the larger forms dominate.  Transitions define form and as always, negative space - which has its own identity - was a major design element.

Oh Art of Painting, 

You may well consider 

Yourself most fortunate in having one of 

Your artisans elevate You, 

by his talent and manners, above the heavens!

                             Giorgio Vasari (on Raphael)

Pheasant still life 3-part mold in progress.  Notice foot and foot and wing parts on right.

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

#135 In the studio: Pheasant still life con't . . .

Pheasant rooster looking east toward the pond

I have pheasants on my property in Lander, Wyoming
and I routinely observe, photograph and draw them from my studio window.

I obtained additional study material from a pheasant hunt last fall.  I always save the wings and tails to use as studio reference. The new pheasant sculpture has been on my mind for years and living with this old rooster every day was all I needed to finally actualize the piece.

Whether the artist works from nature, from memory or from fantasy, nature is always the source of creative impulses.

                                                      - Hans Hoffmann

Wings from fall pheasant hunt

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

#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

  

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.

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