The Art Academy, London is an independent art school offering various short courses and a full two-year diploma.
To stretch my creativity, I attended a short course in sculpture. Approximately 12 other artists participated in this. We were given several different exercises to do. One exercise I particularly enjoyed was moulding with clay a life-size model of your own head whilst blindfolded. This took up to about 3 hours. The results were hilarious and demonstrated that what you think in your mind’s eye or feel you are moulding doesn’t translate accurately to the finished piece. This exercise brought home to me the unreliability of the ‘mind’s eye’.
Another exercise was to use litter and assorted waste to create a ‘creature’.
The photograph above is of a small bird squawking. The wings were made from a plastic drinks bottle, and I used other waste pieces to make the body and legs. After covering the model with hessian, I was then able to coat it in plaster of Paris. Once this dried, I was able to finish the model with white emission paint.
I enjoy sculpting and model making, but my main interest remains in painting.