The Different Styles of Inuit Sculptures

At first, all Inuit soapstone sculptures from the Arctic may look alike. However, there are variances in artistic styles among the different Inuit art producing communities. Although all communities produce Inuit sculptures featuring both animal and human subjects, some seem to do more animals while others do more people figures. Some communities make their subjects appear quite realistic with lots of high detail while in others, a more crude and primitive look is preferred. There are Inuit sculptures that have a highly polished finishes and some that are the complete opposite where they are left dull and unpolished.

Some areas specialize in producing small scale miniatures much like the artwork by their ancestors who first came into contact with white men. Inuit sculpture can range from quite conservative to bold or even wildly outrageous. Scenes can be playful like a piece depicting two Inuit children playing or with a sense of humor like a walrus waving. On the other end, transformation and shamanic pieces can look disturbing or even frightening to some. Hunting scenes can portray the gory realities of life and death in nature.

One thing that all Inuit sculptures have in common is that they show the fact that Inuit people have deep connections with their family life, their natural surroundings and spiritual beliefs. It is interesting to observe that even if some Inuit artists have converted to Christianity as their religion, they may still include Inuit spirituality and legends as a big part of their lives. This is portrayed in some of their Inuit sculpture and other artwork.

The differences in artistic style are partly due to the different types of stone and other materials available in each community as well as regional preferences. Of course there can be outside influences when Inuit artists travel from community to community. This is particularly the case with larger growing communities like Iqaluit which has seen an influx of Inuit from other parts of Nunavut ever since becoming its capital. One can find a variety and blending of Inuit art styles here. A longer version of this article which describes the different styles of Inuit sculptures from different Canadian Arctic regions can be found at the Free Spirit Gallery website.

Clint Leung is owner of Free Spirit Gallery http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca , an online gallery specializing in Inuit Eskimo and Northwest Native American art including carvings, sculpture and prints. Free Spirit Gallery has numerous information resource articles with photos of authentic Inuit and Native Indian art as well as free eCards.

Metal Art and Steel Sculpture Overview

While marble and bronze have a historically been the preferred medium for sculptors, new techniques in the use and shaping of steel have made it one of the best mediums for the modern sculptor to use. Steel is, it goes without saying, strong. It is also easy to maintain and the gloss of its finish lasts and does not dull with age. It needs little maintenance and is able to capture delicate detailing and nuances. In the delicacy of its use, the sculptor is able to use it as precisely and the painter uses his brush.

Steel sculpture came into being at the hands of artists born at the beginning of the 20th century. These sculptors would adopt and modify European modernism in such a dramatic fashion that they developed a style of their own. These artists approached sculpture from a painte’s point of view rather than a sculptor’s and found meaning and beauty in industrial products and the use creation of geometric designs and abstract shapes. For them, steel was the material of choice. They understood that steel could replace not just the lines and planes of marble, iron and even wood, but give the finished work of art a power and presence no other material could match.

Steel sculpture opened the doors to new concepts. The size of the sculpture was now limited only be the imagination of the sculptor. And since steel was immune to effects of weather, large outdoor sculptures became common. These were not just pieces for private collections and galleries, but were made for public places. Steel sculptures could now be commissioned by municipal authorities for public plazas, parks, airports and buildings. The availability of public finds for commissioning large sculptures gave a huge fillip to the genre of steel sculpting.

Steel sculpting also ceased to be purely the work of the artist, although the artistic values were not lost. An example of this is Picasso’s 1967 creation of a huge head of a woman in steel. This was done in Chicago and the complete piece was fabricated at a steel company that was located near the city by skilled industrial steelworkers who were able to use the company’s equipment to raise, cut, weld, bend and shape enormous pieces of heavy steel together to create the final sculpture using based on the small model the artist had created for them to work with.

Although steel sculpture became popular in the years following World War II, most universities and art school did not have the expertise or equipment to teach steel sculpting. However, by the 1970s, the popularity of the art form had created such a demand that these institutions were able to not just procure the equipment needed to teach this art form but were also were able to bring in teachers with the experience and skill to assist in the birth of a new generation of sculptors who had both an understanding of steel as a material and the skill to create with it.

Today, steel is the preferred material for large outdoor and very often, government commissioned sculptures.

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Is sculpture pedestal work of art?

For many of us pedestal for sculpture is the same as a frame around a picture. Sculpture pedestals make ideal pieces for displaying a sculpture, or some other piece of art and thus become piece of art itself. The question is has pedestal serve as a functional accessory or is an integral element of the sculpture as a hole work of art? This is an issue that needs to be considered by anyone who wants to display their sculpture. I don't think there is an easy answer to this question.

Most sculpture pedestals are designed by a sculptor to display sculpture. Sometimes text is engraved on the sculpture pedestal. Sculpture pedestals are made of many various materials in a variety of colours and finishes. The Basic sculpture pedestal is stationary, meaning that it does not have the rotating feature.

For Galleries, Offices, and Homes, sculpture pedestal is a wonderful complement. Whether your taste is classical or contemporary, whether you prefer painting or sculpture, your sculpture pedestal is to help you connect with art, and find works that communicate your tastes and inspire you. Any courtyard or garden can be given a vibrant new personality with just the right handmade sculpture with pedestal.

A work of art in itself, sculpture pedestal is ideal for artwork display. Once you have found a sculpture to feature, the next thing that you need is a sculpture pedestal to display it nicely.

Sculpture pedestals are usually in the form of work of art that comes in a wide variety of different styles, sizes and materials. There are many manufactures out there offering a huge selection of decorative pedestals.

Many of these pedestals are actually replicas of shortened Greek, Roman, Egyptian and French columns. Other shapes and sizes are much more artistic in nature. Most sculpture pedestals are made of cast stone that mimic the look of marble columns, but also you can find large selection of fluted wood pedestals.

If you would like to present your favourite piece of sculpture, hand-crafted pedestal will enhance the artistic display of your sculpture. However, it is better to order simple and elegant pedestal which will complement sculpture you wish to display. The goal for most of sculpture owners is to create family heirloom. Thus, when ordering a hand-crafted sculpture pedestals, be sure that you getting high quality work of art at very competitive price cause art pedestals are designed and crafted to last for generations. In conclusion, the pedestals are of the major issues that must concern any sculpture owner, and there is no one solution for all sculptures.

For sure, the proper presentation is essential and, unless the design of the sculpture pedestal adds to the expression of the sculpture, it should be as unobtrusive as possible. If you would like more information about art of sculptures, go and grab it for free at: http://www.thebestsculpture.info

Ice Sculptures

When it comes to breathtaking scenery there is very little that can compare to a snow covered landscape. The snow dulls sounds so that everything is quieter than it normally is, nothing much ventures out in the cold so everything is still and calm. A feeling of peace and tranquillity seems to fall with the snow and settle over the region like a protective, mood tempering blanket. Adults become children again, throwing snowballs and making the occasional snow angel in a deep snowdrift. Everyone becomes an artist, expressing themselves through the creation of elaborate snowmen. You also get the real winter artists, the ones who thrive in the cold and whose creations will never be treasured in any museum simply because the medium doesn’t last long enough. Ice sculptors are being taken more and more seriously as artists, as the complexity of the art becomes better known and it gains more recognition internationally.

China and Japan both have long traditions of ice sculpting. They are 2 countries that for millennia have had a reputation for valuing art and beauty so it is no real surprise that they have been appreciating the magnificence of ice far longer than any other cultures in the world. The art is so valued in Japan that it makes the best ice chisels. Ice chisels are specially designed to work on ice and are extremely sharp. Other tools used in ice sculpting include: electric chainsaws, angle grinders, heat guns, torches and a plain old household iron. How you use these tools and how many of these tools you use will depend on the size of the sculpture and its design. The toys involved certainly are fun, though you want to be careful and not accidentally take your own leg off in all the artistic excitement.

Ice sculpting is a fairly complicated and scientific art. Not just any old piece of ice will do. The blocks of ice used are carefully chosen for their suitability. Sculpting ice must be made from pure, clean water so that it will be as transparent as possible and have the absolute minimum of air bubbles. The sculpting environment is equally important. If the temperature is not that cold then the sculptor will have to work quickly to finish it. In cases like that it is more efficient to use power tools as much as possible.

There are several ice sculpting competitions and demonstrations held all over the world where artists and amateurs are given a chance to display their skills.

Heilongjiang Province, in China, hosts the increasingly famous International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, which is held once a year in Harbin. As the festival’s popularity has increased, so has its size. It attracts more talented artists every year, who display ever more impressive techniques and create ever more spectacular pieces to display. Heilongjiang is an ideal region to host an ice and snow festival as the climate is very cold and there is no shortage of snow.

The Annual World Ice Art Championships has taken place in Fairbanks, Alaska since 1989. The event is organised and run by volunteers, which makes it rather unique in the world of ice art championships. Roughly 100 artists from around the world attend enter the competition every year. There are two main categories: single block and multi-block. Each category is then sub-divided into 2 more categories: abstract and realistic sculptures.

On the Japanese island Hokkaido; the city Sapporo is famous for its winter carnival where teams compete to create the best ice sculptures. The designs get very creative and elaborate, some even reaching the size of multi-storey buildings.

Ice hotels used to be novelties, now they are becoming popular and regular destinations for tourists in several cold countries. Sweden is believed to have started the trend, however, with its Ice Hotel in Kiruna. It began in 1989 and has been widely advertised through all media. The only things in the hotel that are not made of ice are the beds. There are 60 rooms and suites, a bar, reception area and even a chapel. It is only open between the months of November and May when the weather is at it’s coldest.

One country that you would not normally associate with ice sculpting is Ireland. It is not known as an ice and snow covered landscape. It is not defined by freezing temperatures and long winters. Yet it has some of the world’s most well respected ice sculptors who have won the International Ice Sculpture Festival, Jelgava, Latvia for two years in a row. Not bad going for a country of shamrocks and leprechauns.

Ice sculpting is more popular in the Northern Hemisphere largely because there is not a great deal of snow in Australia and Africa, even in the depths of winter. South America is very similar. The southern continents are not close enough to the Antarctic to get very cold winters and snow. They have to rely on machines to make ice blocks big enough for their artists to work with. They also have to keep the finished pieces in specially cooled rooms so that they don’t melt immediately because the warm climates simply aren’t conducive to the durability of the works of art. The people are fine appreciators of ice sculptures though, and whenever an opportunity comes around for them to see some art, they are always there in droves.

Recommended Site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_sculpture

The Indian handicrafts signing of wood

It is not by chance that the art of wood carving in Indian has been so famous for generations. Indian is proud to be a country having one of the world’s longer histories of sculpture, dating back almost 10,000 years. This is the age of the first carvings of human faces and animals found in a Dong Noi cave in Hoa Binh Province. During the Dong Son cultural period, the ancients created houses with boat-shaped curved roofs and were further embellished by art carvings of the likes of birds, animals and, unique vignettes. According to a legend, the woodcarving patriarch is Mr. Sahni, a famous carpenter in India who built a splendid temple for the Taj Mountain. Through the ups and downs of dynasties, generations of carpenters continued to create more and more artistic products with every passing day. During years under domination of Northern feudalism, carpentry in general and wood handicrafts I particular made great progress through accumulation of experience and development of traditional experience together with adopting the best of quintessence of Chinese woodcarving. From the 11 – 12^th century, churches, pagodas, and temples sprung up as religious beliefs sharply developed. Nowadays, most of the ancient wooden decorations no longer exist because of war, fire, termites, and harsh weather. For example, beautiful dragon symbols, unique images distinguishable from others, representing the Ly dynasty only survive through works made of marble or terracotta. Following the tradition of the Ly dynasty, there were additional special woodworks during the Tran dynasty of 1225 – 1400. Examples were dragons flanking flowers, musicians riding on birds, fairies riding on phoenixes, and perhaps most notably of all the decorations of the wood doors of Pho Minh pagoda in Nam Dinh Province which is the oldest woodwork are realistic, of a free style and mostly concentrated in general rather than in detail. This was also a flourishing time for wood artisans to show off their talents through communal house decorations in their village. Thanks to the skillful hands, splendid places having red lacquer trimming with gold step-by-step sprung up. Further, wooden furniture started making their appearance. However, the peak time of woodcarving was from the 16-17^th century. Statues of Buddha in famous pagodas such as Tay Phuong, But Tap and Mia earned acclaim as the most beautiful. The artwork, “Bodhisattva with a Thousand Eyes and Thousand Arms,” which is 3.7 meters in height and having 958 arms in the incomparable work of skilled hands and represents the wide knowledge of artisans. Besides building the palaces, woodcarving artisans proved their outstanding abilities though popular architecture such as village communal houses, temples, and pagodas, sanctuaries where existed thousands of art pieces such as carvings, intaglio, alto-relieves, inlaid carving, red lacquer works trimmed with gold, and red lacquer works trimmed with silver. All social classes were attracted by wooden handicrafts as most of the subjects were based on palace models with classic references and had practical utilities for daily life. Many wood handicraft villages are found throughout the country. Their products are varied, from architecture (palaces, communal houses in the village,…); furniture (beds, cupboards, tables, chairs, supports for flower pots,…); worship objects (lamp stands, incense burners, horizontal lacquered boards, pairs of wood panels on which are inscribed parallel sentences,…); wooden statues (Buddha, saints, and famous people) to toys such as dolls, chessboards, animals, birds,… In the modern era the social aspect of Indian has fundamentally changed politically, economically, and culturally. There was some conservation of cultural characteristics but with some adjustments, some from interfacing with regional countries. Udder the economic development and market expansion of the end of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st century, Indian handicrafts production in general and woodcraft in particular were and are strongly encouraged. This encouragement bodes well and is a good signal for the development of wooden handicraft throughout the whole country. More read... Indian handicrafts exporter

Lost Wax Casting Of Bronze

The traditional process used to cast bronze, developed and used 4,000 years ago, is called lost wax casting. This method results in highly detailed, quality castings and has changed very little over the centuries. The method was used by craftsmen and artists from every culture from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt up to today.

This process begins with the object that is to be cast. An artist creates a sculpture from clay or wax as these substances remain soft. These sculptures can be very intricate and finely detailed. A mold is then made of the sculpture, usually in two pieces, sometimes more when a sculpture is very large. Plaster is used on small pieces, but fiberglass is also used, especially for larger sculptures. After the molding material has been applied and it has dried thoroughly, the mold is then opened and the original sculpture is removed. Usually the original is destroyed in this process, as the molding material is very rigid. That is why the original sculpture is made of a soft material so that it can be removed from the mold.

After all of the original sculpture has been removed and the mold cleaned, a thin coating of wax is brushed onto the inside of the mold. This is done to capture every intricate detail of the mold. The mold is then put together, and wax is poured in the mold while it is being slowly rotated. After a layer of wax at least three quarters of an inch forms on the inside of the mold, the rest of the wax is dumped out. When the wax has thoroughly hardened, the mold is removed. The wax cast is then worked on by artisans to ensure that it is as perfect as possible.

The wax casts are then dipped into a mixture of plaster and sand. This is repeated many times. Each dipping has to dry thoroughly before the next. With each successive dip, the sand and plaster mixture gets more coarse. This results in a very strong shell being built up over the wax cast. After these shells have hardened, vents and 'runners' are added to allow the molten bronze to enter the shell, and for gases and excess metal to escape. The shells are then placed into a kiln and baked at very high temperatures. This heat causes the wax inside of the shell to melt away, leaving an exact image of the sculpture in the shell. This gives the process its name of 'lost wax casting'. After baking, the shell is now a mold ready for molten bronze.

Once the bronze has been poured and has cooled, the shell is then carefully chipped away, leaving a cast of the original sculpture in bronze. Any flaws are removed, the sculpture can be buffed and left its natural bronze color, or painted. This process is very labor intensive and expensive, but it results in such fine quality castings that it is still used after 4000 years.

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Renowned Sculptor Exhibits - Scottish Art Gallery Coup

Heralded by many in the art world as the next Henry Moore, Alexandros Arabatzoglou’s sculptures have been sold to private collectors all over the world, and demand for his work has been such that he has not exhibited in a gallery for nearly nine years, despite offers from some of the worlds most prestigious galleries. However, after striking up a relationship with Artery Gallery, Alexandros decided to end his gallery exile by exhibiting one of his hand carved sculptures in their St Andrews branch.

Born in Heraklion, Crete in 1970, Alexandros came from an artistic family and has therefore been involved in art since a very early age, beginning with designing and creating his own unique jewellery. It was during this period that he was chosen as “Finest Modern Greek Artist” by the BBC. Later he discovered his passion for harder materials, and started to work with bronze and different kinds of stone, clay and glass. After many years of work and experimentation forging these materials together, Alexandros invented his own style of modern sculpture – a unique ability to craft bronze and stone into a single organic form. Every piece is a one-off and can take up to four months to create. There are no moulds or copies and each comes with individual certification from the Greek government.

“The Golden Fish” sculpture was commissioned especially for Artery Gallery to be displayed at their St Andrews branch and is seen as a coup for the Scottish gallery. Jason Michaelson of Artery explains “After meeting with Alexandros in Crete last year, I was amazed at his drive, passion and enthusiasm for his work and his art. For him, creating his sculpture is like breaking down to the bare bones of his inner soul, using his hands to carve into the stone and creating an extension of himself within each individual sculpture”. He adds “Here at Artery Gallery, we are always looking to expand on the superb catalogue of talent we exhibit, and inviting Alexandros to join us, knowing of the interest he has gained, is exciting for the gallery, for St Andrews, and for world art exhibited in Scotland”.

www.arteryuk.com