Vaulting 3

I’ve block painted the model with help from Nicola, and have made an important decision which is not to try and make the colouring realistic. The reason for this is that the form itself has a certain crudeness (due to inevitable misalignments and the low resolution of my process) and to add a realistic face on top of this would look strange, and pull the sculpture in a punch and judy direction. The face has been roughly modelled and I quite like the lumpen-ness of it all.

As i was painting one thing that I noticed was that the wet paint bought out the form more, as the contrast is greater, for example the right black leg below. I may do some experiments with varnish next week.

Incidentally there was a huge lump of sculpture in the same space as mine last year, of a sort of toe. Half figurative half abstract, it was one of my favourite pieces in the show. I can’t remember the name of the artist, but it was someone from TRAIN research group at Camberwell.

By keeping the painting crude and not adding realistic features to the face, I hope that the line between figuration and abstraction will be emphasised. As people walk up the stairs below the sculpture I hope that the coloured lump comes to life as a vaulting man.

In terms of balance I did a trial last week downstairs, using boxes for support and I it seemed easier than I’d anticipated. Given the hands joining the balcony is strong enough I think that all the weight will be supprted on the one leg with just a single wooden strut to stop it from tipping sideways.

For now, back to tidying the studios in preparation for build week.