Autumn Action

Autumn is definitely here, with that early morning chill, often warming up to beautiful afternoons. Today, the breeze was wonderfully balmy when I popped out and I regret not having cycled to Hampton Court to do a bit of work.

Then again, today's tasks were bitty; painting hands and finishing the base for the rhythmic gymnast etc. I'm really pleased with this one - the shape is good and the experiment with a lacy Japanese paper has turned out wonderfully for the leotard. I might use the same treatment for abstract painting...

Hopefully both 'in progress' will be completely done tonight ready for the gallery tomorrow. Been YouTube-ing documentaries on Nadia Comaneci so that might be one of the next pieces. Anyhow, first I have to costume the dancer. Last night I finally did the fingers. With Peter Murphy and Saltillo in my headphones, I finished just after midnight but hooray, all the fiddly bits are now done. The gymnast's rope is painted to match her leotard, her facial features are done and the last bit of her fingers as well (you can probably tell there's a regular finger avoidance thing going on but to be fair I couldn't do hers until the costume and rope were in place).

The guy has been slightly challenging - the shape was ok but I needed to keep adding more pulp to build larger muscle mass than I'm used to! Here's a picture of my experimental partial mold which is probably closer to the ideal muscle size!

It's made with plaster bandage, sealed with dilute PVA then Paverpol for extra strength; the coloured stripe is Sculpey so I could do both sides at the same time. We'll see how that works if I want to do a similar pose. You can see the shells in the background of the finished piece.

Hands and fingers took some doing on this scale with the limitations of pulp making control of the medium less than ideal but they're pretty good. It will be interesting to see how the muscle definition works out when the acrylics go on.

October is just around the corner so that means taking some time out for some Open Studios, as well as Landmark Autumn Art Fair and Affordable Art in Battersea which are both well worth a visit. I like these shows both for the quality and diversity of work on show as well as the lovely riverside cycle over to Teddington and Battersea Park is a treat to walk around at this time of year.