face to face exhibition( WGAC) 2013

I did this piece for the portrait show and it was straight after making the amphorae piece so I used the same technique for the surface. I got the proportions a bit wrong and my forehead isn’t quite as big… I did measure and scale it but anything I measure I seem to stuff up. Still the finished piece pleases me and I think if it sits in the grass it will be an unusual presentation.

As a part of the portrait show I thought I would use the technique I developed on Helen 1 to apply to my son Caleb…I more wanted to explore the hair aspect and go further and also make up to him for the portraits I have at home. I have the two girls face on( as Kids) and Caleb curled up asleep( with no face visible). Caleb has a strong sense of justice and always thought this was pretty poor of me so hopefully this will balance it out. It is a lovely strong piece and the size makes it more of a garden piece than for indoor.

In approaching the portrait show I decided to explore a range of ways of using my steel to develop portraits. I have a plasma cutter and I hadn’t explored its drawing like capacities so I took a sketch of one of the other people in the show( Elisabet) and tried to draw it on a sheet of metal with the cutter. The result is quite interesting I think although it needs light behind it to fully appreciate it. It looked a bit plain in its presentation so my two little characters were added to be like shifting a giant piece.. even though it is so small.

When I completed the portrait of Caleb I put it up on facebook and one of Emilys friends asked where the portrait of Emily was. I decided to do one in the style of Helen 1 as Em has glasses and I did like the way they worked on Helen. As I figured we would not get to keep the Helen sculptures( as we would probably give them to Helen) I thought this would be a way of honouring my daughter and also getting to keep this idea.

This is the first piece done of Helen Timbury. I wanted to try out a very flat technique .. almost 2-D and I wanted to see how long the hair was going to take and if I could get a good likeness. It was the first of the pieces I did for the Face to Face show and it then lead on to the portrait I did of my son. I especially like the whimsicality of the glasses

This is the second piece done of Helen Timbury. The first one I explored a very flat technique and in this I wanted to do a lino print on metal( Helen is a printmaker) and then behind the front image I wanted to include elements of Helen's world, family interests etc

In exploring portraiture in metal I wanted to do a piece that sort of captured some of my sketchy style. This is of a singer ( Steven Smythe) we saw at Mossvale park this year and the sketch was very similar to this. The actual piece is made nearly fully with old nails.