I can’t believe yet another year has come to an end! It has been ages since I last sat down to write a blog and much has happened. If the truth be told, the down turn in the economy has had a challenging effect on my business and the last couple of months or so have been a bit of a struggle. Blogs have not been the top of my agenda.

This year saw a change in the way that the shipping companies have gone about choosing sculptors for their ships and my unbroken record of working for them for seventeen years stopped dead. This has been difficult as the work from them has been very much my bread and butter as far as income was concerned and though I welcomed the change and saw it as a new opportunity, the fact was that I could not find a replacement income fast enough. So I have been applying myself diligently to sorting out how to survive, in what has proved to be a very sparse market place. Like so many others I had became soft and complacent in the good times and this year has certainly been a wake up call.

Still, despite much soul-searching and worry, I have managed to just scrape through I think and have been busy setting up new companies to replace the sort fall and give me a new direction for my energies. This has taken the form of a lot of effort with the sculpture tools, to get that company running and actually earning it’s keep as a business. I can’t say that that is the case at the moment but I have some future contracts ready for next year and the new company should be fully functional by April, if all goes well. I have to say that I am very excited about it as the tools that I have prototyped so far, are looking very good and should fill a very big gap in the market. I shall look forward very much to telling you more about that in the near future. As an aside to that story I am off to Thailand in January to source a manufacturer for the wooden modeling tools, which will be a welcome break from the winter on my little canal boat.

As well as frantically producing tools I have been working hard with my partner Diane Coates promoting ‘The Sculpture School’ with which I aim to offer a venue for teaching all the hard earned experience, that I have been lucky enough to have acquired over the last twenty years or so. To tell you the truth again, I absolutely love sharing that knowledge and enjoy the teaching in a way that I just wasn’t expecting. In fact it amazes me now how much I have to give and formulating the skills I have into a teachable system has been a wonderful journey for myself and my students, I hope. So I plan to be promoting my courses by presenting lectures in applied anatomy, which are fun and informative for artists, sculptors and anyone interested in the human form. It will certainly make you view your own body in a new light!As always happens now that I have become so busy trying to bring all these new projects to fruition, the sculpture which has been totally lacking for months and months has finally come back to life with two significant contracts – typical! I am definitely not complaining though! On that subject Felix Dennis’ sculpture of the Minotaur is nearing completion. I did not manage to cast it into bronze as I had planned as too much else had to be done to stay afloat. That said I am really looking forward to sorting out the last details in the next couple of weeks and getting it delivered at last. If you are interested in the piece, lookout for the photos that I shall be posting on to my website shortly. 

October has seen a very successful start to a new season of workshops for The Sculpture School.  We had a great weekend in the figurative course earlier in the month.  It was made all the more rewarding by the appearance of Fletch on the course.  He won it as a prize I had donated to a charity auction and had previously never held a piece of clay in his life.  After a great weekend with all of the students, it was with delight that I saw Fletch again at a business club dinner on the Monday evening.  He was so taken with what he learned on the course that he took the day off work on the Monday to finish the figurative maquette that he had made as a part of the course!  It was so nice to introduce someone to sculpture who developed such an enthusiasm for what he was learning, moments like that are quite rare!

We’re all geared up for the portrait course this weekend and I’m sure we’ll all have a great workshop as per usual.

It’s been a really busy week.  I was at a business expo this morning – I really didn’t think it would be my sort of thing, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable.  I chatted with lots of very interesting people, learned quite a lot about internet marketing techniques and it was good to get a bit of exposure for the business, especially in the current economic climate!

On the sculpture front I’ve been dealing with Bronze Age, the foundry who are currently casting the minotaur.  I’ll be over there to check the waxes next week and then the pour can begin.  I can’t wait to see him in all his glory!  Of course I’ll get some images out as soon as I can.  There seems to be another commission in the pipeline too so that’s good news.

I’m going to a party tonight so shutting up shop early for once! Have a spooky weekend folks….

August has been a good month in the studio, Andy sold a pre-hysteric and there have been enquiries into him making a life-sized one (I’m assuming this is life sized to our fat lady friend and not the Struthiomimus, although that would be a sight to see!)

The Sculpture School, from this...

There are 4 of Andy’s sculptures in this years vivartis exhibition which is held at King Edwards School in Surrey.  It will be the first outing for his new sculpture, the fallen Angel, Bathsheba Kohl.  She’s been featured in the blog before though so scroll down for a sneak peak.  I can’t show you any more images as she was only finished moments before she needed to leave so we didn’t get any photographic evidence – you’ll just have to get down to vivartis and see her for yourself!  She’ll be accompanied by Dwyffor David, Condottier and Moodius Centaurus and will be in esteemed company as the vivartis line up is excellent this year so it should be a great exhibition if you fancy a day out!

We’re gearing up for another run of The Sculpture School.  The first weekend is the figurative module on 1^st and 2^nd October , then portrait will be on 29^th and 30^th with moulding and casting on 26^th and 27^th November.  There are a couple of places left so check out www.thesculptureschool.co.uk for more info or if you’d like to come along.  Don’t forget you can buy gift certificates too so if you want an unusual present for someone it’s a great weekend for anyone of any skill level.

to this.....

Andy’s on holiday at the moment, taking a very well earned break in Sardinia.  I’m sure he’ll be returning waxing lyrical about the wonderful art and sculpture he’s been finding on his trip and hopefully with a wealth of ideas for new projects of his own!

In the meantime I’ll keep things ticking along around here, at the moment it’s just me, Dylan and lots of glis glis running around above my head.  The little blighters have chewed through my office ceiling and left me a lovely little pile of poo on my desk – has anyone got a ferret!!?? (the wonders of working in a barn!) 

Claire 

NB - Ignore dinosaur comment, after a quick check on dino-sizes, our Cretacious friend is to scale when compared to his lady friend - hurry back Andy, we miss your Dino knowledge!!!

Two weeks ago an old dilapidated, wooden boat arrived, moored two boats behind mine and promptly sank that night. I met the poor guy that endured such a catastrophe – he said ‘he woke up with his feet feeling very cold’. He has been my neighbour ever since and every day he recommences his battle to raise his water logged home from the muddy, filthy waters of the canal. His name is Eric and I must say he is a shining example of stoic, smiling positively in the face of overwhelming odds. He has also made me feel completely different about my humble boat. It may not be finished the TV may be broken; I may have run out of water but it is afloat and I have just cooked poached chicken with a tasty Moroccan cous cous whilst looking out at the most beautiful sunset, sipping an ice cool Sauvignon Blanc. This is a very romantic stage in my life and poor Eric has reminded me to take stock and appreciate it, instead of worrying about everything that I haven’t done yet. Thanks Eric – ‘here’s to you’ – I sincerely hope that you succeed in your watery quest.

Andy’s just so busy with all of his projects that I’ve (Claire, PA to the Master!) decided to write the June blog for him (as it’s now mid July, I’ve given up any hope getting anything from him any time soon…)

June started off with the great news that one of Andy’s sculptures sold at the Sotheby’s Summer Auctions.  He was delighted with the sale and it made all of the scurrying around to get the pieces down to London worthwhile.  Pre-hysteric featured at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and with the hot topic of the show being sculpture (according to the BBC), it was great to be featuring with such esteemed company as the show attracts.

The great news for me is that while I took a little holiday in sunny Devon, Andy completely refitted our office.  It’s great, organised and clean (although I’m sure not for how long, sculpting’s a messy business!).  Enthused by the office makeover, Andy and his renovation assistant Terry are now sorting out the studio.    It’s going to look fantastic but woe betide anyone who leaves a tool out of place when it’s finished!

The plans for the Sculpture tools are coming on well, Andy’s got some fantastic business partners who have a wealth of business experience which means Andy can concentrate on developing the products and leave everything else to the experts.  Most of my time at the moment is spent trying to source companies for all aspects of the manufacture as well as order fulfillment and delivery.  I’ve also spent many an afternoon with Andy going through all of his designs and getting them on the computer.  When it all comes together this should be an amazing new venture so it’s exciting stuff!!

There’s been a little time for sculpture amongst all of this, Andy’s finished some sea serpents for a client’s fountain and has completed the mould of the minotaur.  We’ve also put in proposals for a couple of pieces of public art that would be quite exciting if either of them come off but it’s very difficult to gauge what is wanted when you put in proposals for these things, so we’ll have to wait and see, fingers crossed!!

Don’t worry Andy fans, he’ll be back to his blogging soon, I shall make him write a july blog by any means necessary.  Any suitable persuasion techniques would be gladly received!!

Claire

The Minotaur project is into the moulding phase, a stage that is nearly finished now. I have been distracted recently by the demands of the art agents. I am casting two Prehysteric pieces, one going to be auctioned at Sotheby’s and the other is going with Colin Neville to the Affordable Art Fair. I just hope that all this effort pays off and at least one of them sells.

There is a lot going on at the moment. I am busy trying to get the sculpture tools manufactured, which means sourcing the box wood and getting outworkers skilled enough to actually make them. I am also getting very accurate templates laser cut so that the tools can be made to a constant size. As might be expected, the setting up of a new business is a lot of work but with Colin’s help I might just stand a chance of success. It’s definitely worth the effort though, because it will potentially provide a very welcome second income in years to come.

Back in the office, we are doing everything that we can think of to promote the video and the website. Press-releases are going out and we are getting everybody to tell their friends, so please watch it if you haven’t already. Go to the website and click on the You-Tube button and enjoy! It’s has received considerable acclaim already, but we’d love to get massive viewing figures worldwide!

Boat life is becoming very pleasant and romantic with the advent of the sunny weather - so welcome after the long dark winter nights. I am working on the engine room at the moment using a very specialized dense sound proofing to deaden the engine noise. It’s very heavy stuff and proved more expensive than I had anticipated. One of the rolls came undone over the weekend and the rubber material fell onto one of the nearly finished Prehysteric casts and toppled it, smashing it into many pieces on the floor! One of those freak studio accidents that happen once and a while in the studio – I was not best pleased to say the least…the air was very blue!

We have just been over to the film editors to see the penultimate version of the finished video. I can hardly believe that it will be ready by the second week of the month. It’s incredibly exciting, and we are thrilled with the results! It is the culmination of over a year’s planning, so the launch in the next few weeks is going to be huge! I am, for once, being extremely pro-active and organised, with a carefully planned launch and PR campaign - which is a completely new and somewhat sensible approach for me. Spurred on by the amazing response to the video so far, I already have the out-line of the next video, probably based on the ficticious adventures of the Minotaur…..watch this space.

The Minotaur is finished as far as the clay work is concerned and I am well into the moulding process now. It is a big piece to mould and, because of the way it is to be cast, very complicated as well. I have taken photos of every stage of the process and I hopefully intend to weave it into a story for a book on the making of a Minotaur. In between whiles I am producing some new sculptures for Colin Neville to sell at his next show. So it will be some very long days and late nights to come, as I still haven’t finished the engine cover for the boat, which is getting very pressing too at the moment.

The weekend of 9^th April heralds another Sculpture School weekend workshop on Figurative Sculpture and Armature-making. It is the first one this year – sadly delayed due to all my sculpture commission commitments! It will be great to run a weekend course again  - I do enjoy it. A crucial part of the course is teaching anatomy and we have a fantastic model on whom to demonstrate and illustrate the important muscle groups relevant to making a figurative sculpture look beautiful.  It is fun for everyone, as working with live models really brings anatomy to life and is a powerful teaching tool.

All is going well at the studio, with the Minotaur just moving into the final stages of the clay work, ready for approval so that I can commence the moulding process. With this particular project I am going to do every stage myself, as I really need to save as much money as possible. This will ultimately include the actual bronze casting, which I shall do with my new improved homemade furnace. The improvement is actually a communal garden hairdryer, which forces oxygen into the gas and raises the temperature considerably, allowing me to melt the bronze in about 45 minutes. Still, all that seems a long way off at the moment.

I have been busy making a whole series of armatures for the next series of sculptures including the wings of the ‘Angel’, which I mentioned in the last blog. That particular piece is definitely on hold for the time being as more pressing commissions take economic priority. It is very frustrating to leave work that is inspired from the heart but there is limited time in any year to indulge my artistic whims unfortunately.

I have five of my pieces being exhibited over the next few weeks by my new art agent Colin Neville. I am very much keeping my fingers crossed that this will turn out to be a lucrative partnership for both of us. It’s very exciting to have somebody out there actively selling on my behalf. Until now I have managed to run the business on commission work alone so this will add a much-needed boost to my income if all goes well. As well as Colin’s input, my daughter Lucy is doing a brilliant job increasing my profile on the Internet, coming up with some very innovative ideas.

On the home front I managed to get away for a short but very enjoyable skiing weekend in the Alps and got back without any injuries, which always helps. In the little spare time that I have just now, I am working on a very posh engine cover for the boat, which should make the engine very quiet indeed – a definite advantage when living on a narrow boat. Infact now that the days are getting longer, boat life is slowly returning to it’s romantic image, instead of the endless problems that the constant dark and cold seem to bring in their wake. Lets hope that it lasts!

Strike me down and dance a merry jig, the video actually happened! The filming went ahead at the end of January as arranged and after two very long days and many, many takes, I am now the proud owner of what I am reliably informed are called ‘Rushes’ (the raw footage that now has to be edited into a short film). Everybody played their parts very well, especially the main character played by Natalie Varney who really threw herself into the part. The cameraman Paul Barton was a consummate professional and I have to admit I certainly relied heavily on his experience and production ideas. So all in all the whole event turned out to be a real adventure and an exciting step on the way to much more web based promotion if all goes well.

The ‘Angel’ figure did get finished as I had hoped and she is now moulded and cast ready for the wings to be made. It is such a relief to get a sculpture to this stage as I can relax a bit with no worries about it falling to pieces. Before I can become ensconced in that project however I have got to earn my keep and bring some money in by getting the Minotaur sculpture to the first stage, which is of course, finishing the clay. So I have turned my full attention to that and am enjoying doing the enlargement process from my original maquette. I haven’t done any enlargement work for many years so it is making a very pleasant change. This kind of work is much more mathematical and precise than standard sculpting and is a good discipline to practice from time to time.

It’s so lovely now that the evenings are getting longer again. Living on a canal boat in the winter, when I am trying to work very long hours, is difficult and needs a trusted routine to keep everything warm and working. I really appreciate a bit of extra sunlight so that I am not constantly doing everything in the dark. One of my Christmas presents was new curtains so the boat is looking very smart and cared for and is much warmer. Work on the inside should start again soon now that summer is on her way – that is if I stop socializing and working through weekends!

Well it’s back to work now, the studio is looking very sculptural and artistic at the moment what with sculptures of semi-naked angels, Minotaurs and armatures everywhere. Even the scribbled mathematical calculations add a certain touch to the atmosphere.

Everything is hotting up now as the studio gets prepared for the filming of my epic three minute video. As usual there is so much to do, props to make, the mould store to tidy (a major job in itself as the organisation in that quarter has long since leapt beyond my control) actors to co-ordinate etc, etc. Good fun though, especially now that it is definitely going ahead. It’s all been in the offing for so long that I was beginning to think that it would never actually happen.

On the real work front I am working on the maquette of Felix Dennis' Minotaur sculpture which is moving on a pace as I want to get the contract properly under way before Christmas, if at all possible. I have to say it is the biggest maquette that I have ever produced standing at over 18" in a kneeling pose. The reasoning behind this is that it takes me less time to work big than to work small and time is definitely at a premium at the moment.

I received my free copy of Spectrum last week (all the participating artists get a copy) a time of year that I really look forward to. I have got the third page in their Dimensional section and a full page spread which is wonderful and not what I was expecting. Now I am feeling under pressure to get next year’s entry ready. If you remember I am sculpting a Sphinx leaping off a cliff which has got no further than the armature stage as yet!

I have been thinking hard about marketing lately and what to do with the video and how to create the right sort of publicity as I move into next year. I promised myself that I would be a millionaire by the time that I was fifty which means that I only have ten months left. I can see this particular goal going to the wire! Combining the artistic temperament and good business acumen is always a challenge for me. Pondering this I went to see the sculptor Jonathon Wilder at the weekend and talked to him about this subject and it was very interesting to hear his take on the matter. Be more moody, artistic and bolshy was his advice. Harsh, but definitely something to think on as I do need to change and expand my horizons when it comes to selling my own work.

Also on the agenda is the life size sculpture of an angel which is now all but finished. Well the first stage anyway. I have decided to sculpt the figure first, cast it and then sculpt the wings on the cast itself so that the mould making stage will be that much easier when dealing with the wings. They are going to be about ten feet in diameter and of major impact in the composition of the piece. Whilst writing this another idea has sprung to mind pertaining to this particular piece - I shall chew it over and tell you all about it in the next blog if the idea works out. Inspiration, it’s a weird phenomenon.

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog and as you can imagine a lot’s been happening. Vivatis, the show in Surrey, went well and I sold a number of pieces including a portrait of Steve Redgrave and my surrealist piece, Pre-Hysteric. Now it is all guns blazing for the filming of the video I’m producing, which hasn’t been quite as straightforward as I hoped….

The trouble has been casting actors for the piece, which has proved a bit of an eye-opener, as I couldn’t find anyone to take on one of the leading roles. The problem is now solved and I have a beautiful Romanian girl playing the part of the Marionette that comes to life in my dark little tale. I am working hard on all the props, including a life size sculpture of an angel with a ten-foot wingspan. Although her wings might have to be dropped for the video as the expense and time involved in actually making them is proving prohibitive at the moment. Having said this, I have my extremely talented sister Mandy very busy making all the costumes and sorting out the makeup techniques that will be needed on the day. So if all goes to plan, the filming will start at the end of the month.

I can report that the photo shoot for the male models went very well and I now have hundreds of images to use in both my forthcoming book and as illustrative diagrams for 'Sculpture School'. I can’t wait to have time to apply myself to these projects, as I am literally brimming over with ideas and teaching methods. So – with any luck - I should be able to turn my attention to all that by next month. Please note, that as yet I still have no good female models for the book, so if you are an aspiring muse, or know of anyone who would be interested, please give me a buzz, all enquiries are welcome.

On the 'real' work side (as in commissions that actually bring in money), I am working on an ornate gate for a client in Brazil, which is being viewed next Monday, and I am also seeing Felix Dennis again tomorrow to discuss his latest project for The Garden of Heroes. So all is very exciting on that front.

Dil and Laura have been busy working away on site for the sculptor Nick Fiddian Green, creating one of their beautiful moulds for him of one of his latest horse heads. It’s good to have them back in studio, I must say, as it is very quiet here without them around to annoy and clutter the place up.

I am now the proud owner of the ultimate high tech canal boat. My new engine has made all the difference in the world to my home life - such as having hot water and moving a bit quicker! It’s given me a new enthusiasm for the whole project and my little boat home is looking very beautiful indeed – a pay back for all the work I have been putting into it in the evenings and weekends. It’s just lovely being able to move without smoke billowing out of the engine room and to loose the strained smile on my face indicative of the impending seizure of a doomed engine!

Oh yes, look out for my studio which makes an appearance in ‘Kristy’s Home Made Home’ (Channel 4, Tuesday’s at 8.00pm) as it was used as the back drop for an episode featuring stone carving. I think that it’s coming out in the next two weeks or so, I shall let you know as soon as I am sure of the date. Till next time, "I am ready for my close-up…."

Well, the talk went over really well Sunday afternoon St.Edward’s School, Witley for the Surrey Sculpture Society. It was the first time I’ve been asked to speak at such an event and I was surprised just how nervous I felt as I stood before 200 sculptors. I had a planned a forty-minute talk, which in fact lasted a good hour and from all the feedback I have received it was a great success – a number of delegates having cancelled their appointments to visit the Dr to top up on Temazepam.

Presentation to the Surrey Sculpture Society

For me, it was a weekend of appalling over estimates, as on Saturday I did a big photo shoot for illustrations for my book and for The Sculpture School course notes and diagrams. I thought the shoot would only last twenty minutes for each model and in fact we needed two hours per model. What is wrong with my sense of time at the moment?

I really enjoy having Ruben pose for my sculptures

I managed to get hold of two really good models - Ruben who has posed for me before and Rufus who modeled for the first time. Ruben – who has many claims to fame, one of them being Graham Norton bare chested minder on the original Graham Norton show - is the ultimate professional to work with. You may recognise him as the face of Moodius Centaurus. As this is just the first stage of a completely new venture, I can’t wait to see the results, as amongst others it has such exciting design potential. It’s amazing how long something like this can take just to get off the ground, as so many other factors come into play to delay new projects and of course behind it all is the relentless pressure of every day commitments. For the first time though, I am desperate for good female models, so if you know of anybody then please ask them to email me. I still haven’t got a star for the video I am making, which is something of a problem, as time is definitely running out now.

Boat life continues to be a challenge despite a lull where I thought things were settling down a bit. The excitement of getting a new engine was curtailed slightly yesterday by my narrow boat Mithra not managing the trip to the boatyard. The radiator blew up on the way there, so Mithra is now stranded on the canal despite the best efforts of Dil and myself, trying to pull it the rest of the way. There were too many boats in the way to navigate. Still I have a cunning plan, which I shall try today and might just work as I only have a few hundred yards left to go. The adventures of boating are many and varied and something always seems to catch me out but nothing that I can’t handle as yet. I can’t wait for the new engine as it will change my life and make the boat so much more comfortable, easy to use and get rid of the stinking oil ridden thing that has been the bane of my life for the last two years! Wahey!

I have just got back from a birthday surprise weekend trip to Vienna with the energetic and vivacious Diane Coates who runs www.thesculptureschool.co.uk with me. Vienna positively throbs with sculpture, painting and music, all of which we managed to enjoy, in a very busy weekend. My feet still ache with all the walking around museums and the city itself, which is truly beautiful and a joy to explore. So naturally, I am feeling very inspired by the whole trip and have many design ideas buzzing around in my head; mainly for what I am going to do on the boat, by way of interior design -  my ongoing project when I am not at work. I plan to create a very faithful Art Nouveau interior complete with fine woodwork, mirrors and relief sculpture. Nothing over the top you understand – the very thought!

It is interesting how trips like this affect my design ideas for sculpture - in this case the Sphinx, which I mentioned in my first September blog. Seeing the work of so many highly skilled and talented artists just mainly makes me feel that I need to lift my game and be a worthy successor to these sculptors of yesteryear. They had the benefit of a good and structured art education which is, to all our detriment, quite simply missing these days – quelle damage!

A portrait of my friend Mike Burke and his daughters

The finished portrait sculptures of Mike and his daughters went down well and left the studio last week to get the approval of his daughters. I must phone him and find out what they thought of it.

Now I am preparing for a speech that I am giving on Sunday 11th October to the Surrey Sculpture Society at St. Edwards School, Witley in Surrey. I shall be talking about myself so should be able remember what happened as I am a recognized expert on the subject. It’s only five hours long so why not come along, you would be very welcome indeed. I jest but all comers are very welcome as it is open to everybody (it’s only half an hour I promise).

Antiques Roadshow Andy McConnell visits the studio!

Last week I drove into London for a poetry reading by Felix Dennis, which was held at the Northumberland Hotel at Trafalgar Square. The traffic was terrible and the journey took two hours thus curtailing any chance of dinner. Naturally I panicked and smuggled in a McDonald’s, as I didn’t think that I would be able to survive on canapé’s alone! I was right and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening without passing into unconsciousness due to lack of blood sugar. I am not a man for poetry generally speaking but I have to admit to really enjoying Felix’s work and three hours just slipped away in laughter and tears. The added bonus was that, for all of point three of a second, a photograph of my sculpture of King Kong featured in a series of photos of his sculpture garden! How amazing is that! Fame at last!

It was a good week for celeb’s last week, as it happens, as Andy McConnell - the glass authority from the Antiques Road Show, just popped in with one of our clients to have a look around and entertain us with his natural bonhomie. It’s amazing what happens at the studio these days, just out of the blue!

Life on the boat is getting noticeably cooler these past few weeks as autumn draws its inimitable cloak over yet another summer. My yearly battle with spiders is well underway with the little buggers trying to move in for the winter and me persuading them in the strongest possible terms that that is not an option! Life at the studio is busy but relaxed at the moment with plenty of work but no horrendous deadlines, which is a heavenly relief. It won’t last but is lovely whilst it is here.

I am working on a rather beautiful relief for a gate that I mentioned in the last entry that is based on a design from one of the monumental gates in London. It started out to be a fairly simple commission but has gradually changed into a much more complicated and studied piece of work, much to my delight. So I shall be starting that this week with great anticipation.

Life size sculpture of the much loved Bruno

Running alongside my normal commission work is a lot of prop making for a video that I am currently producing. It is a dark little story of strange sculptures, strange people (me and the team) and strange happenings at the studio - involving a four-foot tall vulture. Changing hats and becoming a filmmaker is a bit of a strain, as I know nothing about it at all but luckily I have the help of a very experienced cameraman, so it looks like it might actually happen over the next few months. Watch this space is all that I can say.

The portraits of Mike and his daughters have now been finished and have been moulded by the talented Dillon (every studio should have one, hideously messy though he is). So I should be casting that this week. I do like doing the casting and finishing myself, as it is one of the most rewarding parts of sculpture and of course is the final finishing touch on all that hard work. I have also finished the Springer Spaniel, Bruno that I was working on last time I wrote. This time when Julie and David arrived to see the finished piece they were duly impressed thank goodness. Applying the colour did the trick as I had hoped and it most definitely looked like Bruno. So he has gone off to his new home and you can see the results in the portrait gallery on my main site.

Another big piece of news is that the new Sculpture School website http://www.thesculptureschool.co.uk has finally gone live and is a real tribute to my gorgeous (and very beautiful) PA Sarah who has done yet another beautiful design job. She has been very busy lately on that front, as she has designed another huge site for me that formats all the commercial work that I have done over the past seventeen years. It is a huge site too as it features over seventy sculptures! These will be rotated in groups of thirty-five sculptures each month so that the site is not too overwhelming to view. So if all goes well and I can afford it, that site should go live at the end of October.

I am working on a portrait sculpture of a father and his two daughters at the moment. It is an exchange of talents, Mike the dad, is my business adviser so he has my sculpture and I can afford his talents for a while. I love doing business this way. The portraits themselves have not come easily this time, so much so that I had to take a break and work on something else for a while. That did the trick and the problems that were thwarting me have now been easily resolved. The composition is of all three heads together, the central head of the youngest daughter looking forward and the father and sister looking out to each side. I wasn’t sure about this idea at first but it definitely works as a composition.

At the same time I have also been sculpting a portrait of a dog called Bruno. He owns two lovely people, David and Julie who came over to the studio late last night to view the more or less finished clay stage. This was an unusual meeting as it was the first time that a blind person has ever come to sign off a clay before at the studio.

Traditional image of the sphinx and a contemporary option.

Julie caught Meningitis two years ago and it absolutely devastated her life leaving her totally blind amongst other very hard problems to deal with. So the viewing was a strange and unusual experience for all of us. David, of course, is very much her eyes but isn’t used to the kind of artistic interpretation needed to see the likeness of a beloved animal in a monotone clay form. A Tiger without stripes would confuse the most discerning of us and the same is true of a Springer Spaniel. Without his distinctive markings it is very difficult to see Bruno just as a shape and say yes that is definitely him.  Still, an hour later we had a pretty good idea that we were all on the right track and that he will spring to life (if you will pardon the pun) when the patination is applied.

So my cunning plan is to finish all four of these portrait sculptures by Friday so that I can concentrate on the next commission. With it being Thursday today the pressure seems a little excessive but if I don’t give myself impossible deadlines I don’t seem to respond! The next contract is a very complicated relief for some wrought-iron gates that I am really looking forward to, as it will be a technical challenge of considerable difficulty. Talking of which I was chatting to my Sculpture School business partner Diane yesterday, when the inspiration for my next personally inspired sculpture shot into my mind! Where does all that kind of thing come from – it sprung into my conscious mind as a finished design suddenly from nowhere. Which isn’t good for conversation incidentally as I stop dead with my mouth open and stare into the middle distance as the image forms in my mind. Bloody artists we are all mad when it comes down to it! It’s a good job that I have understanding friends around me. So now I am itching to get on with it of course. Oh yes, it is a Sphinx  by the way, a mythical creature as we all know; part lion, part women, part bird. So yet another totally un-commercial design idea but I don’t care - if you can’t sculpt from the soul every now and then what are you really giving to the world, money and sales aren’t everything!

I have been pretty busy with The Sculpture School this month. I missed my usual monthly teaching weekend in July as things were just too pressurized, time wise, to be able to fit everything in. So this month is taken up with two teaching modules, to make up for the lost session.

The Sculpture School teaching weekends are really taking off now, which is a relief. No matter how good a business idea is, it still takes time to get it off the ground. I don’t know why that is still surprising – it must be the eternal optimist in me. It’s good fun getting a new venture to work and very rewarding when it finally does. I have to admit that it’s hugely pleasing to pass on the cumulative knowledge of over twenty years to new students and make so many new friends. I put so much thought into my work and have come up with so many worthwhile techniques that it would be a shame to keep them all to myself. Although the weekends are very intensive, as there is a lot to cover in a short time, the emphasis is on making them fun, which for me always makes absorbing the information easier. I am full of ideas for future courses that will really enhance and compliment the modules that are already on the curriculum. This should create a powerful learning system, as the knowledge will be reinforced every time the students attend the next module.

Taking a class in anatomy and armature making as two keen students look on.

Splitting the business and giving the moulding and casting side to Dillon and Laura has worked out very well as they are working very hard promoting the business and are beginning to see real rewards. They deserve it and I can thoroughly recommend their services to anybody who needs good resin casting work done. Laura has found a real talent in her patination work.

My life seems to be dominated currently by learning to come to terms with modern technology. I have started up a ‘face book’ with a great deal of help from my daughter- in-law Claire and am now Twittering – if only I could understand why, I am sure that I would get so much more out of it! Still, life as an artist is all about PR and that means going out of my way to embrace all that can help me achieve ‘maximum optimization,’ as my Internet monitoring company keeps telling me. One thing is for sure I don’t want to die unnoticed and poor, so bring it all on I say!

A while back I mentioned that I was designing a new set of spatulas for sculpting. This was prompted by not being able to buy decent sculpting tools anywhere when I broke one of my favourite tools. So I found a supply of boxwood and proceeded to make my own and I have to admit that they are things of extreme beauty. Anyway I came to a halt when it came to getting them manufactured, as I am not brilliant at that sort of thing at the best of times. I did mention the idea to a series of friends though, to see if anyone had any clever ideas. Well to my total surprise, it’s paid off as it looks like I might be able to get them manufactured in Africa through a friend and if the quality of the first set is anything to go by things are looking good. My intention is to sell them through my website by mail order so watch this space.

Work is going well at the moment with a series of portraits going through; the drawings for a nine-foot Minotaur have been sent off and yet more relief work (no armatures there then). Life is good at the moment as there is plenty to get on with but the unrelenting pressure of the last few months has lifted thank goodness. So I am making a point of enjoying my weekends and trying to do some work on my boat before the winter sets in. It looked particularly beautiful this morning as I left with the sun reflecting off the shiny new paintwork.

Well since my last entry a great deal has happened as usual. I had a wonderfully restful two weeks in Mallorca, enjoying a very quiet and remarkably unchallenging time. Usually my holidays are full of adventures but this time the pace of work over the last few months had knocked the stuffing out of me. So I just enjoyed the sense of quiet recovery. Mallorca is such a beautiful island when you manage to get away from the touristy hot spots, the plasma TV’s and brightly painted English football supporters!

Back home heralded an immediate dash to get the coin finished for the Royal Mint short listing. It’s been a fascinating and I have to say, difficult journey, to get this particular job done. Hugely enjoyable though and I was actually pleased with the results. So if I don’t win the competition I shall be able to console myself with the knowledge that I really did my best.

The Male Life Size Bronze Swimmer, one of a male female pair entitled summer lovin’ based on 1950’s theme.

Sarah – my gorgeous assistant - ordered a beautiful presentation box made by a very skilled jeweler, Mike Shorer - so it looked very professional as it was packaged up and sent off by courier. That job complete, I was off to the foundry to do a metal check on the two1950’s bronze figurative sculptures of swimmers that I have been working on. The team at Bronze Age had done a brilliant job as usual and with but a few tweaks the bronze sculptures were ready for patination. So on Friday last week I picked up the two life size sculptures and drove them back to the studio to get them photographed ready for shipment this week. The patina was very good indeed and they look terrific. Creating bronze sculptures is such a team effort!

Now I am working on another portrait of Mr. Christopher Moran. This is a three-dimensional bust set into a dished roundel surrounded by marble effect architecture. This sculpture is to be placed in the Through Chamber, between the Council Chamber and the Great Dining Hall, so that he can keep an eye on his guest’s betwixt the two. The bust itself is cast in a Carrera effect marble, which is a very difficult material to get right and very unforgiving.  Still it passed a visit from the charming David Honour who patiently guides me through all Mr. Moran’s commissions.

Next week I am planning to start a series of portrait sculptures which I am looking forward to. Sometimes commissions stay stuck in my mind with no decent design ideas coming through. This has been the case with the portrait of two sisters that have been in the background for quite a few months awaiting inspiration. It’s fascinating how ideas somehow bubble to the surface just in the nick of time. Composition is everything with sculptural commissions like this so it is definitely worth getting it right. So onwards and upwards – I shall keep you informed of what happens.

I seem to be spending all my time at the bronze foundry these days. The two swimmers are finished the waxes are done and they are going to be poured this week. It’s amazing how fast one can go when the ‘chips’ are down. The Christopher Moran portrait has been cleared now too, so I am just completing the final touches to the clay before I start the mould. This piece is going to be a marble effect resin with a coloured marble surround. To make marble resin work convincingly, the original clay work has to be very smooth to emulate carved stone which takes time and requires the clay to be so dry that is on the verge of cracking.

I took my mother over to see King Kong in situ at Felix Dennis’ place last weekend. She had never seen the finished piece so enjoyed the trip immensely. Felix met us as we arrived and invited us back for a drink after we had had a look around the garden. So we sat in the sun and chatted about this and that over a glass or two of wine. What a perfect summers afternoon it turned out to be as he passed on a commission for a larger than life Minotaur that is to be beaconing visitors into his maze. This maze (and it is a very serious one) I know of old as when we delivered King Kong, Dillon wondered off to have a pee. He idly wondered into the maze and that was it – I thought that we would never see him again. In the end I had to go and get a tall ladder so that I could see over the top of the hedges so that I could guide him out! It makes me wonder how many bodies are in there of those that didn’t have the benefit of a friend with a ladder!

Anyway what a brilliant commission, it’s ‘right up my street’ and has to fabricated in different metals in the same style as King Kong. I think I shall do all my own casting again, only this time I will have a go at casting in copper and brass as well so that the sculpture is as colourful as possible.

Well, I cant believe it! One of my designs has been selected by the Royal Mint to go through to the next stage of judging. I will be up against one other sculptor and need to get the presentation piece into the Mint by the end of June. Planning is essential as the accuracy of translation is going to be of paramount importance. All the design work has been refined and perfected so that there can be no mistake in the proportions.

To play it safe I am making three blanks with every tiny detail included, except the figure of Britannia herself. This gives me three chances in case something goes wrong and things can go wrong with this kind of high detail work. I am photographing two models dressed up as Britannia on Wednesday in the right pose so that the image itself is as good as I can get it. Its all very good fun and a huge technical challenge; I just hope the results reflect all the careful preparation work.

The Jean Raymond over sized medallion that I mentioned in my previous blog is now finished as a bronze. It took four attempts to get the perfect cast and has been a very problematic commission on a technical level. I should be collecting the gilded version this week ready for delivery on Wednesday I really cannot wait to see that.