Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Protector - Late Night At My Studio - Testing a FlipShare Camera

Bought a flipShare camera today at Cosco.. and decided, once it was charged up, to head into my studio to try it out. Not sure how this will all work. I'm using SonyVegas Video editing program, and just learning that as well.. on a trial basis. Have no idea what I'm doing yet. Just trying to improve my videos for you all

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Clay To Bronze - Special Two Videos Showing The Process

In these two videos I try to show how a clay is molded with Latex Rubber, then a wax poured from that mold is then prepared for a ceramic mold and finally the wax melted from that ceramic mold and bronze is then poured into the cavity in the ceramic mold. Making a finished bronze. Like all these pieces, these two video are the result of 5 months of photography and video. I did this to help you to understand the whole process.
It's a fascinating journey and I hope you'll enjoy this presentation.

PART 1 MAKING THE RUBBER MOLD, WAX, AND CERAMIC MOLD



PART 2 CASTING THE BRONZE. MADE FROM THE CERAMIC MOLD.



Photographs from the video





Monday, July 26, 2010

The Protector - Finishing the Clay - Ennis Montana's Veteran's Memorial

Just final touches to THE PROTECTOR today. I finished up his shield, and tightened detail.
Then I went to the Ennis Veteran's Memorial to photograph the walls of names of our verterans who've served in the U.S. Military from the Revolution to present. Shown in this video is the life size bronze I was commissioned to create for this memorial.



Photographs from today.




Saturday, July 24, 2010

A Ride Along the Ridge Line of the Gravelly Mountains

Today, I drove through the Gravelly Mountain Range with a friend.
The Gravelly Range is a mountain range on the west side of the Madison Valley in the Madison County Montana (MT). Gravelly Range climbs to 8,258 feet (2,517.04 meters) above sea level.







Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Protector - Detailing the Clay

Got a really late start.. Up to late the night before. I explain in the video. Just another long afternoon of fine tuning the clay. Detail, detail, and more detail. Detail work takes up a lot of time when producing a work of art.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Protector - Learning Thai and Finishing the Clay

My friend from Thailand, Bell, is working here in Ennis Montana for the summer. She worked here two years ago and went back to Thailand to continue her education at a University There. She's going into the Medical Business. I had her open my video today. She just looks so much better than me.
I got back onto my clay of THE PROTECTOR and pretty much finished the clay today. I will still spend several days going over it to just catch any mistakes.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Just Not Feeling Well Today...

I've been running around for days now, and the trip to Jackson, I was not feeling all that well. Today, I'm going to just spend the day in bed. I'll be in the studio tomorrow.. if I feel better.
(UPDATE... WILL BE IN THE STUDIO.. FEELING GOOD TONIGHT)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Somewhere A Cowboy's Walkin - Delivered To Mountain Trails Gallery

I tried videoing this whole trip with my Nikon D5000. Still learning the camera. I didn't shoot as much because I had just been down there the week before.. felt like I was repeating something you all have already seen.
It turned out to be very hard to photograph the bronze at the gallery. It took almost two hours. I enjoyed my time though. Got to meet some very nice people who were wondering through the Mountain Trails Gallery.



Photographs of SOMEWHERE A COWBOY'S WALKIN.



Friday, July 16, 2010

Somewhere A Cowboy's Walkin - Coloring the 1st Bronze

9 hours it took to color this bronze today. Issac started at 8 am and finished at a little after 5 pm tonight. The following video shows 7 hours of that time frame in a condensed version.
I want to thank some people here. Without whom I would never have been able to do what I do. Jim and Ginger Walsh, who's love of my work, has made it possible for me to continue creating. Jeff Johnson and his very understanding wife, Colleen and his two lovely children. These wonderful people make it possible for me to create pieces like this bronze. I just wanted to thank them here.



Final photographs of this bronze in the patina room.



Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Protector - A New Beginning - Somewhere A Cowboy's Walkin

Started the day working on THE PROTECTOR clay, then got a call from Scott at Northwest Artcastings. He needed me to come in and check the wax of A NEW BEGGING and the bronze of SOMEWHERE A COWBOY IS WALKIN. New Beginning will be going into shell, or ceramic mold next week, and then bronze the following. A Cowboy... is going to be colored tomorrow, which means I'm back at the foundry in the morning to finish up that first bronze. This is getting fun.



Photographs from today.



Local Terri Freeman at the Rusty Cowboy With Chickens For Lunch


Terri Freeman says, "We have two baby chickens (really - they are only 2.5 months old) and they know what time lunch is and they are not shy about taking your sandwich right out of your mouth - here is an example of how forward they are! Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane enjoying egg salad!"

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Protector - Filling and Texturing Today

Took 2 days to get to my studio. Well I could have gone yesterday but road work and traffic delays were just to much to handle day 1.
I arrived today and started finishing touches to THE PROTECTOR. Mostly tedious filling, and texturing.



Photographs


Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A Society Of Modlers Had a Show In Spain

I came across this amazing video of a show held at Castellfollit of the Rock in Spain. It's a showcase of the world of Modlers. Artists that create miniture sculptured masterpieces. The following is translated from their video on Youtube. I hope you enjoy this video.
I'm always up for showcasing artwork that's worth sharing. These are amazing aritsts.

1st EDITION OF THE CONTEST OF THE ASSOCIATION THE FACTORY RED
Red Factory (lafabricaroja.com) is an association that emerged six years ago and with over 500 members throughout Spain, plus some partners in Brazil, USA and Venezuela. It aims to be a virtual meeting point between modelers.
It currently has physical locations in Castellfollit of the Rock and Madrid, where he conducted meetings and workshops of painting and sculpture regularly open to the public and with intent to open different sites throughout the state.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Delivering AIN'T NO COWBOY to Jackson Wyoming and a Trip Through Yellowstone With Kadian

I took a trip to Jackson Wyoming on Sunday the 11th of July with a friend, who's from Jamaica, and is working here locally for the summer.
I dropped off the bronze of "Ain't No Cowboy, to the gallery at Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson Wyoming. Then Kadian and I traveled through Teton National Park and enter the southern entrance to Yellowstone Park. We covered hundreds of miles on this day, and Kadian saw things she'd never imagined before. It was such a pleasure seeing things fresh through her eyes. We traveled through three states today. Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.



Photographs from the trip





Friday, July 9, 2010

War Medicine & Ain't No Cowboy - Photographing The Two Bronzes

Every Artist must learn to photograph their own work. Hiring someone to photograph your artwork can cost a huge amount of money. I've been photographing my artwork since the late 70's. Someday, I'll try to go into more detail on how to photograph your bronze or clay sculpture. For now here's a short version.



Photographs of the two bronzes
WAR MEDICINE




AIN'T NO COWBOY



Thursday, July 8, 2010

War Medicine & Ain't No Cowboy - Colored Today

Today I spent the day watching over the coloring of two bronzes. "War Medicine" and "Ain't No Cowboy". "War Medicine" had a head start and when I got the foundry, he only had an hour or two of coloring left on it. Then we started on "Ain't No Cowboy"
Tomorrow will be spent photographing the two bronzes for my website. Then I'll be taking "Ain't No Cowboy" down to the Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson Wyoming. I'll be videoing that trip.



Photographs of the two bronzes after their coloring.




Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Protector - Final Detailing on Hands and Shirt

I tried my Nikon D5000 camera's video mode today. Found that it shut itself off after only a few minutes, with no warning signal, so I worked on and the camera was off. I need to go over the manual and see what I need to do to extend the time the video mode will stay on.
I worked on the two hands and added, tendons, veins and then skin to the right hand. I completed the sleeves and took the shield off and worked on those areas of the shirt I couldn't reach with it on.
I will be out of the studio tomorrow. Will be in the foundry on Thursday and will have video that night for my blog. I will be back on this clay on Friday. That's the schedule for now.



Final photographs.



Monday, July 5, 2010

Silent Arrow - Life Size Bronze - Delivered

Silent Arrow,the life sized bronze, was delivered to Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson Hole Wyoming on Saturday the 3rd. Just thought I'd put together videos from 4 days of working on it at Adonis Bronze in Alpine Utah, starting back on April the 6th 2010. I worked on two Life size clays over that period. The other one was Iron Horn, it's still in production.



Photographs of the original small bronze


Photograph of me working on the life size clay


The finished life size bronze now in Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson Hole Wyoming.