So - as you head to Maine for your summer vacation to explore the rocky coast, dine on lobster, go on a whale watch or a puffin cruise, check out the Saltwater Artists Gallery - we're just a quarter of a mile from Pemaquid Lighthouse.
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wide Padauk boards that I had chosen to use for the base of the sculpture. I thought the deep red-orange color of the wood would contrast well with the blue-green patina that I was going to be using. While the glue hardened, I applied the cold "Tiffany" patina to the castings. I decided to leave the egg in the nest a natural bronze color to make it a focal point in the sculptural composition. I also removed some of the patina color on the nest to enhance the surface textures. I finished the castings by sealing them with satin polyurethane. The next step was to prepare the wooden base. I sanded it, and then rounded the corners and drilled the holes where the various castings would be inserted and attached. I also added a smaller 1/2" thick walnut board to the bottom side of the base to add a little elevation to the piece. The base was then sealed with satin poly. The final step, after the base dried, was to attach the castings. I glued each casting into its designated pre-drilled hole using 5 minute epoxy. And - lo and behold ....Spring had sprung! The piece was ready to deliver to the Spring Greens show at River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta. 3 views of "Spring Arrival"
The quick back story on the construction of the pod birds is that I made their bodies from Mahogany seed pods, added sticks clipped from my old lilac bush for legs, and then attached lotus seeds for their eyes. The birds required the addition of wax wings, tail feathers, and feet, and I carved their beaks out of the small ends of the pods. As I transitioned from bugs to birds, I also decided to cast a couple of small birds nests that I had squirreled away for some future project. I coated them in wax and added a wax eggs. In the interest of artistic experimentation, not to mention being a "waste-not, want-not" frugal ol' Yankee, I also decided to cast some dried poppies from my garden. ( I like to have a full mold when I cast!) So fast forward to 2018, and my plan now is to clean up my leftover birds, nest and poppies, patina them in green, arrange them in a composition, and attach them to a base... Spring Greens! Stay tuned!
on the underside of the lid to stabilize the lid in the opening of the box. I used a fine sanding sponge on the exterior of the box to even out the surface imperfections, and then coated the box and the lid with satin polyurethane. The next step was to attach the baggage pieces to the lid. I arranged the baggage on a piece of styrofoam to finalize spacing and determine where holes would need to be drilled in the lid to accommodate the attachment posts on the underside of each piece of baggage. I used tracing paper to transfer the hole placement locations to the new lid, and then drilled the the marked holes to a depth of about 1/2". The final step was to attach each piece in the appropriate hole with 5-minute epoxy. I was very happy with the completed piece. The patina on the baggage gives it an aged look that goes well with the look of the box base, and I feel that the box serves as the last "case" in this composition of carrying cases. I won't go into all my thoughts about all of the "baggage" most of us carry around with us - the box will simply provide a new place to put it! 'Unintended Baggage' ..... complete Gearing Up For Maine's Art Show Season at Saltwater Artists Preparations are underway for the beginning of the upcoming art show season at Saltwater Artists Gallery in New Harbor. We will soon be setting up for our Memorial Day opening, and look forward to seeing our work displayed under the new track lighting that we had installed throughout the gallery over the winter. If you are headed to Maine this summer, stop by!
a length of threaded rod that could be screwed into the hole in the bottom of the figure and reach through both disks to the back of the piece of marble. I put epoxy in the hole in the bottom of the figure before I screwed the rod into it. (I did this to keep the rod from "backing out" when I tightened the nut at the other end.) The final step was to thread the other base pieces onto the rod and then tighten the nut onto the end of the rod. First "cold case" of 2018 solved! On to the next! "Moonrunner" ... sealed & assembled
Mother Nature has graciously provided me with a bit of unencumbered time (courtesy of her latest Nor'easter blizzard) to get together a new posting. Of course, my time will only be unencumbered until the depth of snow necessitates my braving the elements to clear a pathway to the woodpile. Fingers crossed that the power stays on!
After making 2 each of the four different molds, I dried the castings and then trimmed any irregularities on their edges. I also filled and sanded any surface imperfections. I then experimented with various arrangements of the 3"x3" castings, trying to get a composition that had an interesting distribution of circles, squares and the varying elevations. The next step was to paint each casting with the graphite acrylic, and then prepare the matting materials. I cut 3 different pieces of matboard (2 white and 1 red) and a piece of foamcore board to fit into a 14" x 14" black Nielsen metal frame. I cut an opening in the foamcore board that corresponded to the outside measurements of the casting arrangement, and an identical opening in the piece of red matboard. I used an angled mat cutter to cut a slightly larger beveled opening in a piece of the white matboard. Before I attempted to assemble the mats, I made one final change in the arrangement of the castings. I decided to reverse the order of the 2 bottom right castings, so that there wouldn't be a circular element in both of the righthand corners of the design.
I became a member of the gallery in 2016. As a co-operative gallery, all of our 25 members take turns "sitting the gallery" during the season - answering questions from our visitors, processing sales, answering the phone, and so on. This was a new experience for me, and I found that it not only gave me the opportunity to get more familiar with the work of my fellow artists, but it was also a great way to get to know our customers. Some of the most consistent feedback from our customers had to do with the quality and variety of the work we were showing. Our members artists work in a wide range of media... photography, jewelry, painting (watercolor, acrylic,and oil), pastels, wood turning, fabrics, glass, printmaking, and sculpture. Have included a few representative pix below - So as you head up the coast of Maine next summer, be sure to head out to New Harbor and stop to se us at Saltwater Artists Gallery. It will be on your left, just before you get to the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point . * You can catch up with what's happening at Saltwater Artists Gallery on Facebook.
Read more about the Gallery's history in my blog posting for 6-3-16. A couple of weeks ago I was running a bit ahead of schedule as I headed to a gallery on the coast to drop off some artwork, so I decided to make an unscheduled stop at an antique / collectible / junk shop shop just over the bridge in Bath. I had gone past this shop for years and had always been intrigued by the piles (and I mean piles!) of "stuff" that surrounded its entranceway. Usually either it wasn't open when I went by, or I was in a hurry and couldn't stop, but evidently the stars were aligned just right on this particular day. As I prowled through
The next step was to cut, sand, and glue two pieces of yellowheart wood together to serve as a baseboard (9" x 9 1/2") for the sculpture. While waiting for the glue to set, I added feet to the seagulls using the same process that I used in the Coastal Trio sculpture (blog entry 7/19/17). I then sanded and sealed the yellowheart with satin polyurethane and painted the seagulls with acrylic. After cutting 3 short pieces of thin doweling to use as attachment pegs, I drilled holes in 3 small flat areas on the bottom of the piece of driftwood. After inserting the pegs in the holes I determined where the piece would sit on the baseboard, and drilled the holes that would receive the other end of the pegs. The last step before before assembling the the sculpture was to accumulate a few possible pieces of "coastal miscellany"... things that might be found on a shoreline beach. First I made a pot buoy out of wood, then I used wood stain to darken a length of string to simulate old fashioned pot warp. I picked out a few small shells from my "maybe I'll use this someday" stash, packing the inside of each shell with Apoxie Clay so that I would have a solid flat surface to use for attaching them to the baseboard. I was finally ready to put all of the pieces of the sculpture together.
I knew I was going to make the gulls out of Apoxie Clay, so the first thing I did was to make some armatures out of small pieces of wood and finish nails. The nails would make sturdy legs and would be used to mount the gulls on the driftwood base. I wasn't sure how many I would need, so decided to make 5 - better too many than too few (any spares could be put to use in a future project). I used Apoxie Clay to build up each of the gull forms, varying head positions and "attitudes". I sealed each gull with flat white enamel spray paint, and then experimented with positioning the gulls on the driftwood base. After determining that 3 was the optimum number of gulls that would fit on the base, I tackled the tricky job of adding the gulls' webbed feet. Each bird was only about 3" high and 3 1/2" long, so the feet would be small and would have to conform to different specific surface contours. For each foot I made a small thin wedge of Apoxie Clay, then pierced the tip with a toothpick and threaded the leg nail through the hole. I made the webbing effect by pressing a clay tool into the wedge of Clay. I then inserted the gull's nails into the holes I had drilled for them in the driftwood base and let the feet harden in place on their perches. (I covered the wood with a small square of plastic wrap so that the Clay wouldn't stick to it.) After painting the hardened feet with the flat white enamel, I used acrylic paint to add color to the gulls' beaks, legs, wings and tail feathers. Next came the assembly process. I used wooden dowels and epoxy glue to attach the driftwood form to the base. Then I attached each gull by putting epoxy into the drilled holes made for it in the driftwood and a small amount on the bottom of the gull's feet. Gulls attached...piece complete!
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AuthorCynthia Smith, Maine artist, originally from Connecticut. Taught art at secondary level for 35 years, retired in 2004. Sculpts in bronze, wood, stone, clay & plaster. Her work can be seen at several mid-coast Maine galleries and shows. Archives
June 2023
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