Thursday, July 31, 2008

August 2008 Tour - Day 2 Arches National Park

Arrived in Santa Fe at 5:30 p.m. today. Drove 390 miles from Moab Utah. Almost 1,100 miles from Ennis Montana. I got up early and took a short trip through Arches National Park before my last leg of my trip to Santa Fe. Here's an abbreviated video of that little tour. Words can't explain what one sees there. It's so hard to grasp. Here are a few photo's



I took in the park as well

Well I'm set up in the Frank Howell Gallery and tomorrow I start my appearance. Check back in for updates.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

August 2008 Tour - Day 1 Moab Utah

I left Ennis Montana about 8:30 AM and arrived in Moab at about 7pm. Long drive. Here is a video of me driving through the Salt Lake Valley from just north of Salt Lake to the south end of the valley or near the draper exit. It's about 20 miles. I video taped the drive, and doubled the speed, then doubled that speed, so if you assume I was doing 75 mph, that would mean what your seeing in the 3.4 minutes is a drive at about 300 miles per hour.... lol Oh the chipmuck talk every so often is my GPS telling me, "Continue on in 2 miles" and so forth.



Got to Moab Utah tonight and I'm so blown away by the amazing scenery. Huge, massive, Sand Stone cliffs, the Colorado River, and the entrance to Aches National Park. Man I wish I had a week here. Here are a few of the photo's I took tonight.

Have another 400 miles of travel tomorrow to Santa Fe. Check back in tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Ain't No Cowboy - Starting the Cowgirl

Ok, I've got a new video program. I tried to do something different for you today. I video taped me starting the figure so that you get an impression of how I start a piece. I attempted to fast forward parts, and slow it down for explanation at a couple of areas. Only trouble with fast forwarding the second fast forward was that somehow the sound stayed in it and so it sounds terrible.. Old Time Radio with commercials is funny fast forward for about a second then it gets annoying. So you might want to turn off your sound till you see me slow down near the end, then turn it back up.



I'll figure it out eventually... lol Well travel the next couple of days to Santa Fe and my appearance at the Frank Howell Gallery there. (Check right column for gallery info)

Monday, July 28, 2008

Ain't No Cowboy - Scaling things up

Found I actually leave on Wednesday and not Tuesday, so it gave me a couple of days to play with my clay.
Today I took measurements of Lea Annes head and face and then photo's of her front and from the side. These will help when I start to work in clay. I then started working on the saddle again. Using my printing program I scaled Lea's face and the saddle to match the scale of the piece I'm creating. After printing out photo's I started to re-work the saddle a bit. I added copper for the horn of the saddle, so that it won't be falling off all the time.



Here's a video explaining what I did today.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Ain't No Cowboy - Foam and Saddle

The following takes place over two days. (Remember you can click on the photo's to get full size versions of them)
Once the foam has set up from Thursday evening, I get ready to carve away excess foam from the armature on Friday. Pictures below show the progress of this process. Foam takes space that lots of heavy clay would take up.


I decide I need to create the saddle first. Here is the saddle I'm creating for this piece. You can see a ruler with black tape on it. The black tape indicates the head measurement. Doing that in the photo helps me to scale the saddle. This saddle dates from 1934.


I plan to create the saddle in wax. It's more durable than clay. I have to do the saddle seperate from the figure so I come up with an idea for a saddle tree made from a soft drink bottle, wood dowels, and cocking foam.


Now I let it sit overnight to set up. Saturday I photograph the saddle, and print out photo's to work from then I put duct tape over the bottle just so the wax won't stick to the plastic. I start building the saddle in a abbreviated form of building the saddle tree.


Now I add the leather (wax of course) to the tree. I then check to see if the saddle is going to work out.


Well this is the last entry till I get set up in the Frank Howell Gallery in Santa Fe New Mexico next week. Going to be busy getting ready for a month on the road.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Ain't No Cowboy - Another Model

I added a brace to the armature of the cowgirl. I had to, because if I didn't, It would be very unstable.



Now I lay the armature onto it's back and put a none stick sheet under it. I lift the armature up by making a clay support. Then using canned cocking foam, I spray under and over the upper part of the body of the cow girl. I now let it sit overnight to set up.


I then had another friend of mine (Lea Anne)pose for the cowgirl piece. She had a different look. So I had her pose in a couple of different poses. Now It's up to me to pick from the two models and create the best "Ain't No Cowboy" I can.


Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Ain't No Cowboy - Starting with air

As with all works of art, you start with a blank canvas or an empty space above a base board for a sculpture.


Once the subject is decided on (refer to yesterdays entry) I start making the armature to hold the clay. Instead of using wire cutters I use a pipe cutter. This keeps the ends of the copper tubing round and clean.


Once the main frame is created I then match foot positions with those in the photo's I took the day before. then I add the armatures for the arms and head.


Tomorrow I start adding clay to it. I'll have to brace it better first.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Ain't No Cowboy - A new cowgirl piece

I've decided to start a Cowgirl piece tomorrow. Today I lined up a modeling session with a real cowgirl, Terry Freeman. Here is the pose I've picked to work from.


Soon after Ennis was hit with a very powerfull thunder storm. 60 mile an hours winds hit us. Here is the video of that fun thingy.

Well that's it for tonight. I'm going to bed before the lights go out again.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

At the Painted Pony Gallery


Here are photos of Bronc Stomper as it was at the beginning of this day, showing the main and the starting of the tail. I also had the halter on the horses head. You can see the beginning of the sage brush near the back leg.

I heated the wax up to where it was starting to melt and using a metal tool, I scooped the wax out and added it to the stem of the sage that I created before, surrounding the leg of the horse. I do this so that the leg will be strengthened in the bronze stage.


I didn't work on the wax much today because I spent most of the time talking to people who came in during the day. Here are shots of the wax at the end of today.


Sunday will be the final day of my appearance at the Painted Pony at Big Sky Montana.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Foundry Tour - Northwest Artcastings Bozeman Montana

I made run to Northwest Artcastings in Bozeman today to drop off a bronze for repair. I figured as long as I'm there, why not take you along on a short and very brief tour of this Bronze Casting facility. They Handle thousands of bronzes and quite a few different artists. I've worked with Northwest for over 20 years. Well here's the tour.



Hope you enjoyed this tour. Check back in this week and see what new and almost wondrous things I am doing.

Coeur d' Alene to Ennis

The final leg of my trip. Well for a couple of weeks anyway. I packed up my clays and a bronze into my van on the morning of the 13th of July, and left Coeur d' Alene for my home in Ennis Montana. Here is a video of that trip home. About 360 miles.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Devin Gallery, Coeur d' Alene Idaho - first day in gallery



Pictures of Kelin wearing my hat. She works in the gallery and we became good friends. Kinda looks like a cowgirl to. Me giving her a sculpting lesson in the last photo.





Not going to be in the gallery on Saturday. Will be heading back home Sunday afternoon. I just want to thank Skip and Debbie, the owners of the Devin Gallery and Joe as well as Kelin for their overwhelming kindness to me while I was at their gallery.

On the way to Coeur d' Alene Idaho

Finally back. Sorry, it's just been to hard to keep up with the Blog and getting my live feed setup in the gallery is a no go. It occurred to me, that Galleries, as well as private people, may find it an infringement on their privacy if I set up a big brother type cam in Gallery. So, on my own, I've decided to not set up the cam in any galleries. I will continue to photograph and add when I'm able from the shows this summer. It's just very hard to take photo's, sculpt and answer questions in the Gallery. The drive from Tahoe to Ontario Oregon was mind bendingly boring. There were moments of interesting land features but mostly it was just a very long drive through the most desolate area of Nevada and Oregon. At one moment in by drive through Oregon, I did pass a sign that pointed down a dirt road, indicating that the grave site of Charbanneou was down this road. I just didn't have the time to go see it. Not sure which Charbanneou, Toussaint or Pomp (Jean Baptiste) where buried there. The following is a first part video of my trip to Ontario Oregon from Tahoe City California.



Here's the final leg of the trip. Ontario Oregon to Coeur d' Alene.



I'm at the Devin Gallery in Coeur d' Alene Idaho through the weekend. Then I head home on Monday.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

At the James Harold Gallery July 5th to the 6th

I once again apologize for not going into more detailed photo's and description of what I'm doing. It's almost impossible with the numbers of people I talk to and once I have a free moment, I'm well along with the clay/wax.
I started the 5th of July working on the quill work on the Indians legging, in the piece, War Medicine. I added fringe to that legging as well, but just realized I didn't take a photo of the fringe. Quill work is what the Indians made before they had beads. Actually they still make quill work on shirts and leggings. It's very time consuming and expensive. They take Porcupine quills and boil them and dye them different colors made from organics and minerals. When the quill is taken out of the hot water it's ply able, so they flatten them and weave them on sinew strands. You might want to do a google search for how they made quill worked decoration.


I then spent the rest of the day working on parts of A Good Trade (formerly known as
Down from the High Lonesome). Madalyn Bodell stands behind the clay. She's the director of the James Harold Gallery in Tahoe City California.
You can see in the second photo, I'm starting the mane of the horse. That was as far as I got on the 5th.

I spent the 6th working on Bronc Stomper. I adjusted his head in a more downward position, and then added the batwings of his chaps to his legs. I also added the bottom cuff of his pants as well as a spur on one boot. That took all day to do. So that's an abreviated 2 days.


I won't be in the Gallery tomorrow. Technicaly this was the last day there. I leave Wednesday for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I may be going to a clients Indian Museaum in Reno tomorrow. I'll take video and photo's if I do. So check back in tomorrow night.

Friday, July 4, 2008

At the James Harold Gallery July 4th

Here are three days of pictures from the 2nd of July to today, the 4th.
Happy Fourth of July everyone....


I'm finding it hard to do anything but sculpt and talk to people. Forgive me for the shorthand version of what I'm doing in the Gallery, during my appearance there.
I start adding cloths to the cowboy on Bronc Stompin. I've decided to go simple with a cotton shirt and scarf. He'll have 1880's style pants and suspenders. I start with the upper half of the cowboy first to establish his personality.


As you can see, when I start his face, I start with the eye sockets first. This gives me the anchor for the proportions of the rest of the face. I gradually add muscle and eyelids. Then I add the hat, the stamped strap or chin strap.


Well that is what I did from the 2nd of July to the 3rd. The following is what I did today, the 4th of July.
I had a friend (K.C. Brennan) from near Carson City Nevada stop by with her husband.
anyone who knows her calls her Mrs. Brennan. You see she's a school teacher. She is an artist and collects Victorian Clothing. Was great to have her and her hubby stop by today.


Well I decided to revisit my Sacagawea piece today. I've been bothered by the dress and the beads on her neck so today, I took off everything on her dress.


I then had new material that showed me much better how the Doe fur on the yoke of the dress was supposed to look like. In the center of the yoke was the tail of the doe (or deer), and the fur of the doe ran as a border between the upper yoke and the lower part of the dress. I then sculpted Cowry Shells as decoration. I decided not to put the necklaces on this time. I wanted to keep a cleaner look. Simpler is sometimes best.


I found out, through research, that the type of Cowry Shell, told a lot about the abilities of her trader husband. Cowry Shells with a flared lower area were considered very valuable. If those were sewn to the dress, it indicated that her husband, was a very good trader. So I sculpted the flared type of shell.
Well that's if for today. Getting ready to eat ribs and watch the fireworks. Happy 4th once again to you all. Stay cool.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Arrive at the James Harold Gallery in Tahoe City California

Well I never got the chance to hook up the live feed in the gallery today. Not sure I'll be able to yet. Tomorrow I'll try again. Till then, here's a short video I shot today at the Gallery.



Well that's it for today.