Sculpture and a few gems from Dorchester Dorset

I took these pictures of a few of Dorchester’s “attractions”.


John White’s connection with Massachusetts may be of interest.


Sculptor, John Doubleday also did a Sherlock Holmes!
Here is William Barnes

and a sample of his Dorset dialect!


The “fountain group” is a “contemporary figure sculpture” and is in the new Poundbury development. (A huge new town growing on the outskirts of Dorchester.) I do not know who sculpted it. Thomas Hardy was done by EHK. I will have to look him up too. Just shows how important it is to sign your work properly if you want to be remembered. (Eric Kennington, thanks Chris)

The Christian Martyrs were done by Dame Elizabeth Frink.

Judge Jefferies was not a judge anyone would have chosen. His Ghost is reputed to be still haunting this building.


The funny little arch thingy is where the Roman aqueduct started and is contemporary, again no idea who did it.

American friends over here

Well it has been a beautifully sunny morning, that is until I went out with the camera to prove it for you. Still you can see it was at least brighter than yesterday.

Here are two of my American friends. The first one above, is an immigrant squirrel not that popular over here;

the other an Appolusa (the spotted one) who is very much loved.

"Charlie" is 31 this year but still as lively as ever and bosses her companion "Smokie" the Shetland around all day and night!
He has an air of Marly's "Puddleglum" being male and of similar great age! We call it "irritable male syndrome".

Grey day

Oh so very very grey.

Still very wet down by the River Piddle

Dorset was once inhabited by the T Rex. Here is evidence of more recent activity!

If you want to know where we are clik on the picture.

Signs of spring

More hopeful signs of spring

cleaner than usual.

Athelhampton House

Athelhampton House is just down the road from us to the West. It is a fine Tudor Manor House with priests’ holes and secret staircases. The gardens are special too, and in the attic there is a gallery devoted to Marevna; see
http://www.athelhampton.co.uk/houseandgardens/marevnasstudioen.htm
to find out more.

Horse and Rider

I am looking for information on this sculptor C. Siegel as this work interests me. When I have the time I want to combine my two subjects, figures and animals. I have always been inspired by the horse, man’s best friend who has helped him create our present civilisation. From hunting, ploughing fields, transport and trade, building; the list is endless. That very special relationship between horse and rider, when such is truly established a bridle is not required. More detailed pictures here:

http://www.aspireauctions.com/auction48/details/8466.html

Dorset

Chris wants to see Dorset. I will find some of my own pictures to post up but for the moment I will borrow these.

Snow from the north?

We live slap in the middle of Thomas Hardy country.

Here is Weatherby castle just to the north of us. The picture was taken about midday today with snow predicted soon! The little bridge you can see in the middle of the picture is the site of the Roman Road that runs East /West across the picture just south of this Megalithic Hill Fort. There is a 18th century obelisk hidden amongst the trees. The actual fort itself is huge with ditches and everything you expect to find on such a site.
http://www.follytowers.com/weatherby.html

Tree down

Lucky, no animal was underneath nor escaped to explore the Dorset byeways.

Gerald Laing

Chris Miller has brought my notice to Gerald Laing. "What a player" his Cv, interviews and reflections are definately worth reading and shouting about. http://www.geraldlaing.com/Gerald%20Laing%20Home%20Page.html

Now for the big freeze

As predicted the weather is getting colder. The temperature has dropped below 4 c for the first time this winter.

10p for some Tulips

Supermarket "nearly out of date stock", has brightened us all up.

Paper Dart fits Art definition

I will try and make a work of art fit this criteria.
A paper dart (aeroplane) works I think.
1. is human activity of no practical purpose (teacher says) and is something new.
2. included a message to the girl in the front row.
3. communicated more than intended.
4. included a reference to plans of expansion!
5. initiated a pleasant reaction and made her turn round.
6. this causes teacher to order confiscation of dart.
7. unintentional result ……..lively reaction!
Well not very convincing but you try!

A fellow blogger's definitions of art, brave chap!

Definitions of art
Art:
1: Any purposeful human activity that has no practical purpose, i.e. does nothing directly for physical survival, and produces something new.
2: Communication with beauty.
3: Creation wedded to communication.
4: A method of expanding the universe by creating.
5: Creating something that is pleasant, making it easier for people to turn their attention outward.
6: Interesting order.
7: A method of creating life.

Art is a method of coping that spiritual beings use when they are to a greater or lesser degree trapped in a fixed universe, where creation is limited and discredited. A spirit stuck in the unnatural position of not being easily able to create something that others can perceive, can use the method of making facsimiles of his creations in the materials he finds already present and perceivable in the universe he is in. This helps others to get an impression of his creation, and through agreement makes that creation more real.

My Art

Figures and Animals.

http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_314082829.html
(Lovelands in USA move figure sculpture)

Up to now I have found that demand for my services as a sculptor has been split almost exactly 50/50 figures and animals. Only one of my figures was clothed. Only two were male. 75% of buyers of female figures were woman. All but one has been commissioned.

But when I read the lines in italics below written by a talented contemporary Artist (Miles Mathis), I was not surprised.


You, the artist, will discover very quickly that society's attitudes about the figure, and the figure in art, are anything but encouraging. There are a few connoisseurs who appreciate the unclothed figure, but by and large you will be swimming upstream.

It is quite extraordinary how much of the human race finds the lack of clothing a problem.

Our most deep-seated nihilism in this country, in this world, comes from, of all places, our religions. The most devout Christians in this country are the most offended by nakedness.


I accept the arguments that guilty thoughts, unwanted pregnancies, violence and abuse may be caused by the appreciation of the great master paintings of unclad figures in our churches. The break with Rome put a stop to that here in England and I am not aware of such images in Islamic places of worship! (Nor that this has any effect on our guilty thoughts etc.)

I wonder if the real reason is more to do with covering up our own souls not just keeping our bodies warm and making a personal statement.


So why does an artist want to create such a work of art?





What is behind the “wicked images” of Jenny Saville or Lucien Freud, where are the guilty thoughts, the unwanted etc…….now I ask?

Well they are both masters of painting “flesh”. They paint the real us or what we will probably become! That is enlightening and disturbing because we know it to be true, so sometimes we like to live in a fantasy world. Success in the cinema is proof of that. The artist who paints or sculpts the ideal figure creates something of our lost youth, something we as a race have been doing for 4000 years or more.

How many people, male and female are dissatisfied with their own figures?

So long live the images of idyllic beauty and long live the artists who recreate them.

Now animals fit in here as well. They too are Gods work without cloths!

21st Century Figure Sculpture

Above is one of Chris's own works you will find there.

I am immensely chuffed to be added to Chris Miller’s 21st Century Figure Sculptors. Here is his remit for this part of his very comprehensive website which until recently covered only the 20th Century. It is a magnificent achievement and a very valuable data base of an important area of art which has been manifestly over looked since the 1920s.

21st Century Figure Sculpture

This page presents the lost generation of figure sculptors --i.e. those born after 1940 -- into an art world that offered extensive access but little in the way of education or public appreciation for the qualities manifest in the previous 3,000 years of world figure sculpture .

This is an era for low-brow sensationalism, middle-brow sentimentality or high-brow alienation -- which is not to say that good sculpture has not been made --- but that it's hard to find.

These sculptors are outside the narrative of modernism -- and many American museums like the Met and the AIC stopped having regional exhibits after 1950 --- so exhibtion catalogs are not a source of images. But gradually - through local displays - the assistance of friends -- searching the internet -- and just dumb luck -- I've been finding more and more

Chris Miller

I insist that you visit as a matter of urgency:

http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/index.htm

http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/masters/masters20.html

http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/masters/21century/newcentury.htm

Peabody arms

I just visited a blog by trying the next blog key. It was rather sad really, like mine not that many comments! In fact it had no comments at all and it read just this:

Is there anybody out there?
OK, I admit it. I'm not exactly a blog virgin, but I'll admit to a slight curiosity when it comes to 'text with strangers'. Everyone these days has a blog - and the first thing they do is to send the URL to all their mates so they all blog away to each other in the same way they would a group email. So, my question is this....how long does it take before a complete stranger stumbles upon a spanky new blog, when the blogger hasn't told a soul that it's 'out there'. Shhhhhhhh.

So I left a message. I wonder if they will answer? Or how long I will have to wait. Or if they have forgotten this little line! Is it a he or a she? It would be interesting to do a person profile based on this short paragraph and the short profile given. Female, 33 etc. Now an astrologer or one who reads birthdays etc will have an advantage if you believe that sort of thing but just to analyse what he or she has said in more challenging.

see :

http://the-peabody-arms.blogspot.com/

I wonder if it's a Pub (Public House or Hotel)? Why Peabody? I'll try a search engine.

"Smokie" the shetland's lunch

Just to prove we have a sunny lunch hour! Here is "The Smoke" trying to get into his lunch bucket which he always moans is too small!

Prince T and RT

Here are a couple of Sculptors I particularly like with links to other works or their site.
Prince Paul Troubetzkoy

http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/pubs/1912/AIC1912Troubetzkoy_comb.pdf

If this link does not work and you are truly interested let me know and I can send you the pdf.




and Rudolph Tegners
http://www.tegnersvenner.dk/eftertid_d/data15.htm

A of B

Here is a sneak preview of one of my current works. She is destined for a river bower in Buckinghamshire. The first picture is the maquette, in the second she is at an early stage of the main cay.

Rain

So January has come and the rain with a vengeance. The water meadows are water-logged as they should be and it is wet dog time too. We hear of a hard winter arriving in the USA so it is only a matter of a couple of weeks and it will be on us too.