https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/EllenCooperArt
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/EllenCooperArt
I have been having great fun recently working on some bird sculptures in various styles and using different techniques. They range from more or less realistic to complete fantasy! Here are a few in various stages of production:
And here are some completed birds:
More pictures can be seen on the Ceramics: Animals page: https://ellencooperart.com/gallery/
and also in my Etsy Shop:
Ellen loves sculpting from live models and these Tamworth pigs were very interested in what she was doing. Being supplied with regular bundles of weeds helped!
There were some other models too:
The new cow and calf are a very different build to the earlier dairy ones.
(See earlier post: Cow and Calf)
The sculptures on the shelves will be fired, glazed and re-fired. Some may be moulded and cast in bronze resin. (Not sure which yet.)
The horse took shape in Ellen’s imagination inspired by cave art. An organic form emerged from the clay, her hands marking it as our ancestors marked their walls leaving their handprints reaching forward from prehistory. The surface of the finished horse resembles a section of cave wall.
This ceramic horse is mounted on a substantial piece of timber, a natural work of art, which Ellen found washed ashore near the old dockyard on the River Medway. The timber was shaped by Britain’s maritime industrial heritage and coloured and eroded by it’s time in the waters of the Medway, perfect for the Cave Horse! It’s rich colouring is reminiscent of the natural pigments used by ancient artists, and reflects the colours of the glaze.
Stainless steel joins the two, a modern material linking history to prehistory.
This smaller ceramic horse was also inspired by cave art.
This little calf is proving to be a popular piece at Wyndcliffe Court Sculpture Garden’s 2016 Summer Show, where it can be seen the gallery. It was sculpted in the cow shed on a dairy farm in Broadwoodwidger in Devon. They were captive models so a little easier than the cow, although the biting flies were pesky! Here it is drying out in the holiday cottage.
The cow proved more tricky; note the sculpture stand on the left, and the models did not hold a pose well.
Packing for the journey home was not easy either and while waiting to be fired the cow’s legs got broken and had to be painstakingly rebuilt before it could be completed and cast in bronze resin; it was certainly a labour of love!
But worth it!
The calf is also available in bronze.
