The Great Big Art Exhibition


I happened to hear Sir Antony Gormley launch this initiative I and I really liked it. Simply; we were all invited to make art and display it in our front windows, gardens, balconies or anywhere else we can (safely). There were different themes every two weeks from early 2021 until the middle of May 2021.


I set out thinking I would make plaster sculptures, as that seemed most realistic given the two-week turn around time. That worked for the first theme (animals) but then I wanted to be more experimental, which I really enjoyed.  


 I missed the fifth theme 'flowers' and the sixth 'draw the future'. For the seventh and final theme 'Performance' I set up a slowly rotating stand in a lit window and put a different one of my sculptures on the stand  every day for two weeks. The stand rotated and the lights came on for 30 minutes in every hour during the day.


Overall I have really enjoyed the challenges of the themes and the short time windows for each one. Also I have appreciated being part of a nationwide activity. Thank you to the hosts, FirstSite [Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021]!

   

Plaster sculpture of a white rhino head

Theme 1 - Animals


For this theme I decided to create a head of a white rhino. I had some good photographs because I had a close encounter with  a pair of rhino's through the fence of the Woburn safari park last summer.


I made a wooden armature and attached it firmly to a mahogany strut, which I have since used to mount it onto a permanent base. For the exhibition it was a race against the clock to get it finished in time to exhibit it for a few days. So it dried out while on display!
ouline of a woman's head, within it a drawing orange monarch butterfly on a bpale blue backgroundutterfly

Theme 2 - Portraits


I set out to make a woman's head in plaster. As I cut sections of blockboard on a bandsaw to create an armature I ended up with two pieces of blockboard with an ouline of the head within them. 


Then I played around with options to put inside this 'frame' and came up with an ink drawing of a Monarch butterfly, on a blue ink wash background. This was a fun experiment - I had been given a subscription to www.artful.co.uk for Christmas, which was an introduction to inking!  


I really like the result - it is such a contrast to my more traditional sculptures. This is raising questions about areas I might want to pursue further - we shall see!
A wooden model of a Kingfisher, painted.

Theme 3 - Colour


I decided to make a Kingfisher because they are probably the most colourful creatures I have ever seen in their natural habitat. 


I carved the shape from a piece of Poplar - much smaller than my typical carvings! I then painted it in acrylics. As with each of my 'entries' for this exhibition it has involved something new for me - fun playing with colour! 

Theme 4 - Humour


These five little animals are made of plasticine. They came as kits and were really fun to make - it was a household project this time! 


We found we needed a few cocktail sticks to provide skeletal structure. Their wooden bases were so that they could peer over the window frame to see the people passing by.