Meanderings of a Maine Artist... sculptor Cynthia Smith - C.V.SmithARTWORKS

Snow, Crocuses, Pedestals, & Fish ... Springtime in Maine

4/17/2019

Ahh-h-h....springtime in Maine. A snow storm one week and a week later - the crocuses are up! It's always an adventure. Have been busy freshening up the paint on sculpture pedestals and building a few replacements in preparation for the upcoming show season. Preparation also includes selecting the 20+ pieces that I will be packing up to take to Saltwater Artists Gallery on Pemaquid Point next month. Now in its 51st season, the gallery will open on weekends starting Memorial Day and then seven days a week beginning June 15th. In Damariscotta, the River Arts Gallery continues its monthly art shows and the Boothbay Region Art Foundation in Boothbay Harbor begins its season of member shows on May 22nd.

Clay relief #1 framed for pour

Plaster casting #1

Clay relief #2 and plaster casting

Part of my preparation for the upcoming season has included coming up with sculpture concepts for some of the upcoming specific themed shows. Saltwater will be having a show titled "Dog Days Of Summer" that will open on August 15th and run through Memorial Day. I have a number of ideas for sculptures, reliefs, and prints, but I need to focus in on a few specific ones and see what transpires! River Arts has a new theme for their show that runs from August 16 through September 12th..."Wild Things". This theme has me looking through my stash of "unique" sculpture materials for inspiration. I suspect wood will be involved...stay tuned!
I recently completed a pair of new plaster fish reliefs. I decided I wanted to make them the same size as the one I made for the last season's Yarmouth Art Festival (see my blog posting for 10-15-18). The original impetus for my creating these reliefs came from my experiences with the 10x10brunswick Art Show. I participated in that show for the first time in 2010, and created the first of my fish relief entries in 2015. They proved to be very popular and I've been kept busy making various aquatic compositions in plaster ever since. I liked the extended version that I did for the Yarmouth show, so I decided to get a couple of them made up before this show season started. Two new designs were each impressed in clay and cast in plaster. The plaster castings were painted with graphite gray acrylic, and now just need to be matted and framed - and then I am on to the next project!

#1 painted

#2 painted

March Show at River Arts Gallery ... Go Figure !

2/26/2019

As the deadline for submission for the March show at River Arts Gallery neared, I began to peruse my inventory of work to select a piece that would fit the "Figures, Photos, and Forms" exhibition theme. I decided on a plaster carving of two figures that I had done some time ago, but had never shown. When I took it out of its storage box I discovered that the gesso that the piece had been sealed with had discolored over time. After a brief debate with myself - repaint it with gesso or strip it and seal it with self-priming white satin spray paint, I opted to strip and spray. I didn't want to chance that the discoloration would leech through a new layer of paint or that the second coat of gesso would also discolor over time.
The discovery of the most efficient way to remove the gesso coating on the sculpture was a process of trial and error. I began by using testing out various grits of sandpaper on the broadest expanses of surface area. I didn't want to put scars into the surface of the plaster that might show when it was painted. I eventually settled on 100 grit which allowed me to break the surface of the old gesso without unduly effecting the plaster beneath it. I was able to use a variety of utility blades and small

Pegged board & drilled base

Board attached to base

plaster chisels to remove the roughed and thinned layer of gesso. Once the piece was entirely stripped I used 200 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper to regain the original smooth surface, and then sealed the sculpture with several coats of the satin spray paint. The final step was to make a wooden disk to attach to the bottom of the piece to protect the edges of the plaster base. I made the disk an inch smaller in diameter than the base of the sculpture and attached 4 wooden pegs that would insert into corresponding holes in the base. After staining and then sealing it with polyurethane, I epoxied the disk to the bottom the sculpture. The finished piece measures about 10" in diameter and stands about 8" high. It was done and I was pleased with the result! Off to the gallery on Friday...

.... 3 views

Making A Good Impression ... What A Relief!

1/28/2019

After finishing up "Tic Tac Tic Tac" (see my last blog post) I was still in "relief mode", so I rolled out another slab of clay and dug through my trove of "impressionables" for some different potential design elements. I tested out a wide variety of found objects and eventually narrowed my focus to a 5 1/2" wide flat wooden disc and an assortment of plastic container lids, nuts, knobs, and a wooden peg. As I experimented with various design ideas, the wooden disc became the obvious backdrop for the patterns that I was creating.

The "Impressionables"

I began my work on the 6 1/4" x 10 5/8" slab by making four impressions of an edge of the disc in the clay, and then pressing a tin can into the centers of each of these partial circular impressions to create a smaller circle. I used a plastic container cap that had two raised arcs on its top to make a sequence of shapes in the space outside the centers, and then used several of the smaller found objects to make varying impressions within those shapes. The designs within the discs were fairly symmetrical at this point, and I knew that I wanted to add a subtle variation to slightly disturb that symmetry. I used a plastic jar lid that had a textured edge to make another circle within the central area that I had created with the tin can. Each new inmpression was placed just a bit off center. I also added a different impressed design in the center of each of them. The final step in the relief design process was to use a piece of window screening to create a lightly textured surface in the spaces surrounding the large discs. I was then ready to cast.

Clay slab

Plaster casting

Painted casting

After framing in the slab, I mixed up a batch of hydrocal plaster and poured in enough to cover the clay slab by about 1/2". I disassembled the framing once the plaster had hardened, removed the clay slab from the casting, and washed off the clay residue. The plaster casting was then dried in the oven at low heat. I painted the casting with Graphite Gray acrylic paint and, once the paint dried, I buffed it with a soft cloth to bring out the metallic quality. At this point I determined that I wanted to do something to emphasize the discs and so I put a thin coating of Iridescent Bronze (fine) acrylic on the areas surrounding them. It not only brought out the discs, but it enhanced the screen pattern in the spaces. The final step was to mat and frame the piece. C'est fini ! ....and on to the next!

Matted & framed

New for '19 ... Black & White at River Arts

1/6/2019

Rang in the New Year by finishing up two pieces for entry into the upcoming Black & White themed show at the River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta. The first piece that I tackled was a vertical design plaster relief. I was taking a brief break from the plaster fish relief designs I had been working on and wanted to play with something abstract. After experimenting on a slab of clay with a variety of objects from my collection of "impressionables" I zeroed in on a very large nut (the nut & bolt variety, not the edible kind!). It measured about 1 3/8" square. It had slightly rounded corners and one face was slightly rounded while the other was flat. Pressing the nut into the clay produced a domed effect in the center of the impression. When I pressed the end of a wooden dowel into the dome it became an "O". This led me to the idea of creating some sort of relief "tic tac doe design", so I used the end of a small thin piece of wood to impress an "X" in one of the domes. I liked the effect. I rolled out a 1/2" thick 6" x 10" slab of clay and got to work executing my design.

Tools, original clay & casting

Painted

Framed ..."Tic Tac Tic Tac"

The size of the slab allowed me to make 21 impressions of the nut in 4 vertical rows of 7 (or 7 horizontal rows of 4, if you prefer). The design was to be based on the idea of tic tac toe, but it was not going to be an actual game set up with 9 boxes. I impressed X's and O's in patterns that I though might simulate game play without using 3 marks in a row, and I also left some domes plain to indicate that the game was either in progress or unfinished. After casting the design in plaster, I cleaned up any surface and edge irregularities, dried it and then painted it with graphite gray acrylic paint. Before framing the piece I rubbed the surface with a soft cloth to bring out the metallic quality of the paint. After matting and framing the finished piece, I was ready to start work on my next entry for the show.

Resin casting

Wooden screw clamp

I thought that the Black & White theme was the perfect opportunity for me to utilize one of the resin castings that I had made while taking a moldmaking class last summer at Maine College of Art in Portland (see my blog post for 7/6/18). I didn't want to frame it in the same way as I had framed my plaster casts since the resin was white and would not be enhanced by a white mat....and I wasn't sure if the details in the relief would show up as well if I painted it with the graphite gray acrylic. As I considered alternative framing options, it occurred to me that I still had a wooden screw clamp left over from my clamp sculpture series (see my blog posts for 1/27/17, 6/9/15 and 5/4/14) that could not only serve as a creative frame, but would also add to the visual dialogue of the piece. After making my framing choice, I determined that I would need to add a wooden backing to the casting that would allow me to attach it to the clamp more securely. After cutting, staining and sealing the board, I attached it to the back of the casting with four screws. I set two short pieces of doweling into each side edge of the board and glued them into holes that I had drilled into the inside edges of the clamp.

I had to cut off the center portion of the bottom wooden screw so that I could glue the handle end in one side of the clamp and the tip end of the screw in the other side so that it would appear that the screw still went all the way from one side to the other. The top screw was easily glued into position without any adjustments. The final step was to add a hanging wire on the back and "Tic Tac Tic Tac" was complete. Both pieces have been delivered to the gallery and await the jury's verdict!

Wooden screws & casting with backboard attached

"Peace of Mind" ...completed

Porcelain Mice & Wooden Cheese ... Revisiting Le Fromage

11/29/2018

I am still working on catching up on unfinished projects. I decided it was time to get started on the second piece of my "Fromage series" (see my blog post from 3/13/17). The first piece in the series featured two upright porcelain mice and a round wheel of "cheese" made of wood with a wedge removed. In this second piece I decided to use a rectangular block of "cheese" with several cut slices, accompanied by two crouching mice. I had originally put aside a section of an old maple bookshelf to re-purpose as a cheese board to serve as the base for the sculpture, but I replaced it with an actual old cutting board that I found at a flea market. After reshaping the handle and blade of an old kitchen knife to better resemble a cheese knife, I was ready to tackle the "cheese".
For the cheese block, I cut down a piece of 2x4 into a 6" long 1 1/2" x 2 1/8" rectangular block. After cutting a half dozen 1/8" thick slices off of the block, I rounded their corners, sanded them and then epoxied five of them together in the positions I wanted them to be arranged in on the cheese board. The next step was to add the wooden pegs that I would use to attach the block, slices and knife to the board, and then to drill holes in the board to receive the pegs. Now I was ready to "paint the cheese".

...beginning ...

... adjustments ...

...arranging ...

...pegged ...

...drilled ...

...painted ...

Before I began the painting process, I used my Dremel to create small "nibble marks" on one corner of the cheese block and on two places on the group of five slices. I primed the block, the group of five slices and the single remaining slice to insure that the wood grain pattern wouldn't show through the the light "cheese color" that I was going use to finish them. I then mixed up a batch of acrylic paint that suggested the color of cheddar (?) cheese and painted each of the cheese elements with four coats of that color and sealed them with matt medium. Before assembling the piece I lightly sanded the cutting board and sealed it with wipe-on polyurethane. I used wood glue to attach the cheese elements and the knife to the board. I used wood glue to attach the two wooden pegs for the mice to the board and the cheese block, and then I used epoxy to attach the two mice to their respective pegs. My second "fromage" is now completed...and I suspect the future holds a third!

Plaster Fish Reliefs ... 10th Annual Yarmouth Art Festival

10/15/2018

Original imprinting "tools" + new tail

Clay impression

Framed for pouring

Plaster casting

Painted

As the entry deadline for the 10th Annual Yarmouth Art Festival approached, I headed back into the studio to create a plaster fish relief. I already had a 10"x10" framed relief ("Big Fish") ready for entry, but I wanted to vary my approach a bit on a second piece. The wooden fish that I use to make the fish impressions in the clay for the relief molds do not have tails. In the past I simply either had the fish impressions heading into the design from either side so their tails were never seen, or the end of a fish was hidden by the body of another fish. For this new relief I made a tail out of self hardening clay that I could use to add a tail where needed in the composition. I also decided to change the size and shape of the relief to allow for the addition of the tails. The new piece would measure 6" x 10" and would be put into a 9" x 13" frame.
I used the same techniques to create the new relief as I had in the past. I rolled out a 1/2" deep slab of clay that was slightly larger than 6" x 10". I then made the fish impressions into the clay with the wooden template, adding tails to the fish whose bodies would be fully visible. After impressing some streaming vegetation into the design with a piece of textured string and some wooden "leaves", I trimmed the clay slab to size and framed it in and poured the plaster. Once the plaster casting was removed from the mold I rinsed off the clay residue and dried it in the stove at a low temperature until it was bone dry. The final step was to paint the piece with graphite gray acrylic and then frame it. It was ready to photograph for entry.
I am happy to report that both "Big Fish" and the new piece, "Cruising the Shallows", were juried into the show. There will be an Artists' Reception on October 25th from 5:30-7:30 PM. Hope to see you there!

*See poster below for more show information.

Cruising the Shallows

Big Fish

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Bronze & Albaster ... Off the Wall !

9/22/2018

Original "One"

I'm still exploring my backlog of unfinished pieces, and I recently unpacked a piece made of bronze and stone that I created a few years ago. It is a 17" long slightly curved textured bronze slab with a figure carved out of pink alabaster perched on the lower end of it. The figure is in a very tight "cannonball" position. The piece was originally set up so that it could be hung, however, as I revisited the piece, I determined that the weight of the piece not only made hanging a somewhat precarious proposition, but it limited where the piece could be hung (break out your handy dandy stud finder!). I decided to create a base for it and make it a free standing piece. After sketching out a design and gathering together some leftover pieces of yellowheart, I was ready to start construction of the base.

My concept for the base involved creating a wooden "cradle" that would support the piece under the roundest section of the bronze slab, but I also wanted to have a some space between the slab and the "cradle" so that the piece would not appear to be a part of the base structure. I wanted the supports to be spaced narrower than the width of the slab to further visually separate the piece and the base. I began by tracing the curve of the slab and then transferring that curve onto 2 matching pieces of yellowheart. After cutting the traced curve on the yellowheart boards, I cut a rectangular board to act as a baseboard. I attached each of the 2 curve topped pieces with 3 screws up through the baseboard. I then added 2 narrow yellow heart crosspieces at either end of the curved upright "cradle" boards. The next step was to add the elements that would allow me to attach the bronze slab to the "cradle".

Beginning of base

First peg attempt

Second peg attempt

My plan to attach the slab was to drill 2 holes in the back side of the thick end of the slab and epoxy them onto 2 pegs that would be inserted into the top crosspiece. I made 2 pegs out of yellowheart, but decided that the weight of the bronze might require pegs made of a more substantial material, so I switched the wooden pegs for ones cut from a 3/8" metal rod. I also decided to add a third smaller peg on the lower crosspiece to add greater stability. After sealing the base with satin polyurethane, I was ready to attach the sculpture...but wait! It occurred to me that I would get a more secure attachment if I used threaded rods rather that plain rods, so I made one last peg change before finally epoxying the sculpture to the base. C'est fini! The finished sculpture is now on display until October 19th at the River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta.

... views of completed "One" with base

Last of the Bronze Pod Birds ... Showing at River Arts Gallery

8/26/2018

Pod bird & snail

Bronze "driftwood" & granite slab

Patina applied

I took a break from my recent mold endeavors to get back to completing another unfinished project. It was time to utilize my last remaining bronze "pod bird" in a sculpture (see my blog posts for 4/2/18 and 5/3/18). I also thought that I might also be able to incorporate a bronze casting of a piece of driftwood that I made a couple of years ago. The piece had a bird-like appearance from one particular angle, and I thought it might tie in well with the pod bird. After unearthing a wedge-shaped slab of granite that I had stashed away for future use as a sculpture base and playing with possible configurations of the elements I had picked out, I realized I needed something else to complete the image. What was the bird squawking about? Perhaps a territorial intruder? I had a couple snails that would be just the ticket!
With the "cast of characters" selected, I began the process of arrangement and assembly. The driftwood would be at the small end of the wedge and the snails would be headed up the small slope at the wide end. The pod bird would be positioned in the center facing the approaching snails. I used a black cold patina to darken the bird so that it would stand apart visually from the driftwood that I buffed and then sealed with satin spray lacquer. I drilled holes into the hardened Apoxie Clay that I filled the snails with, and then epoxied in short lengths of threaded rod that would be used to attach the snails to the stone base. I cut a piece of Padauk wood to fit the underside of the granite base to slightly elevate the piece. It would also lessen the amount of drilling into the granite that I would have to do, and give the sculpture base a softer underside.
The last step before assembly was to drill the holes in the granite so the various elements could be attached....no easy task!! I had to drill three holes 1/2" deep into the slab and two that would

go all the way through the slab. Slow going, but mission accomplished! After epoxying the Paduak piece to the bottom of the granite slab, I completed drilling the two through-holes through the wood and then added recesses in the wood to accommodate the washers and nuts that would be used for the attachment of the driftwood piece and the larger snail. The piece was ready for assembly.

Filled & drilled

First hole drilled

Baseboard drilled & attached

I attached the pod bird by epoxying the short rods that extended from the bottom of each of the bird's feet into two of the 1/2" holes that I had drilled into the granite slab. The bronze driftwood had a threaded hole into which I had epoxied a piece of threaded rod. I inserted the rod through the through hole that I had drilled in the small end of the granite base and then secured it with a washer and nut. The last step was to attach the two snails. One had a threaded rod that went through to the wood and was attached in the same manner as the driftwood. The shorter rod on the smaller snail was simply epoxied into the final 1/2" hole. The completed piece is currently being shown until September 14th at the River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta. Stop by, if you are in the neighborhood!

Shoreline Encounter

My Latest Pod Cast ... A Two-Part Silicone Brush-On Mold

8/2/2018

I mentioned in my posting for 7/6 that I was going to be working on a couple of two-part brush-on molds that I started in the moldmaking class that I had taken at MECA. One of the objects that I had chosen to make a mold of was a lotus pod. I liked the contrast of textures between the concave pockets on the front side where the seeds had been and fabric-like folds on the back side. The pod was fairly delicate, so in addition to sealing the outside with shellac, I also drilled a hole in the stem and injected epoxy into the body of the pod to give it more rigidity so that it would be less likely to collapse during the actual moldmaking process.
 After building up a plasticine shim frame around the pod exposing the seeded side, I inserted marbles into the clay border to act as registration keys. I also carved a thin channel

1st coat of silicone side #1

#1 ready for mothermold

Side 2 ready for silicone

#2 ready for mothermold

in the clay just outside the pod edge to create a seal that would keep the casting material in the mold. Using Smooth-On Re-Bound 25 silicone rubber, I stippled on the first layer to insure good detaiI, and then I brushed on layers of silicone (allowing each to cure before applying the next) until I reached a thickness of about 1/4". The final step for the first side was to apply layers of plaster and fiberglass cloth shreds to create a 3/8" thick "mothermold" that would serve to support and help the silicone keep its shape during the casting process. Once the rough edges of the mothermold were trimmed (easier to trim plaster before it hardens), I removed the plasticine shim and the marbles, inverted the piece, and started the second side.

Mother mold completed

Pod removed

Plaster poured

Mold opened

Before applying the Re-bound-25 to side two, I added a short length of plastic straw to the end of the pod stem. The straw would eventually act as the pour gate for the casting medium. After spraying the exposed silicone for side one with mold release so that the new layers of silicone would not adhere to it, I completed the application of silicone for side two. Once that side had cured, I applied the plaster and fiber glass. After trimming the second side of the mothermold, I extracted the lotus pod and the length of plastic straw. When the plaster was throughly hardened, I was ready to make a plaster test casting. I secured the two mold haves together using rubber bands and 3 metal pinch clamps. I used a large syringe to inject plaster into the mold through the gate created with the plastic straw at the end of the stem. It took 4 injections of plaster and I rotated the mold after each to insure even and thorough coverage.

View 1

View 2

View 3

The casting was very successful. It had very nice detail and little evidence of air bubbles. The only issue was that part of the thin stem broke off during the removal process, but I was able to reattach it by drilling a small hole in both the stem portion and the pod, inserting a piece of a round toothpick, and then patching the break with plaster. I will most likely use resin for future castings. I am not sure yet how I will utilize castings made from this lotus pod mold...but I'll keep you posted!!

Saltwater Artists Gallery ... Opened House 0n Pemaquid Point

7/31/2018

Saltwater Artists Gallery hosted our annual summer Open House on July 22nd. Gallery artists spent the afternoon sharing refreshments and chatting with an enthusiastic gathering of old and new customers.

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