Posted: December 15th, 2009 | Author: Katusha Bull | no comments »
Tags: shape, studies
When I began my training, I thought I would be a painter, I loved colour so much aa well as the smell and texture of oil paints. In fact, before I did my Diploma in Figurative Sculpture at Heatherley, I completed a Diploma in Portraiture. The first project we undertook on the course was a portrait head, sculpted in clay. I realised straight away that I wanted to work in three dimensions.
As I made more and more sculptures, I realised that I wasn’t interested in directly reproducing reality. After working in almost infinitely malleable clay, carving stone was a liberation from the dominance of reality. It was easier to stay focused on the essential elements of structure and design.
Now, I’m a purely abstract sculptor. My work is all about the twist, the wave and the loop. It doesn’t reproduce reality, but it does – for me, at least – represent it.
That’s quite a journey for someone who started by wanting to be a figurative portrait painter! But, you never know where the road’s going to take you until you start walking it…
Posted: December 11th, 2009 | Author: Katusha Bull | no comments »
Tags: posture, theatre
I was at the Theatre in Vienna last week; a lovely performance, but what struck me was a moment when a member of the audience sitting in a box at the side of the theatre, face and arms illuminated front the front against a dark background,with her hands – a bit like this:
It struck me as such a simple, elegant, universal position. When I got home, I sketched it, and found that I was really drawing the basic structures of the body; the weight and hang of the head, the cone shape of the arm:
The two shapes – the head and the arm – taken together fascinated me, so I used my sketch as inspiration for a small model in clay –
There’s something very elegant about those two shapes together. I think this might lead to some interesting work! I’ll keep you posted of any developments.
Posted: December 10th, 2009 | Author: Katusha Bull | no comments »
Tags: alabaster, materials
Alabaster is such a lovely, sweet- natured stone. It doesn’t have a strong grain, so it’s easy to work with. Although it’s a soft stone, it holds an edge beautifully.
It has such a colour -
And such texture -
More alabaster works in my gallery, here.
