Mermaid relief

 This Eastern White Pine board was in the basement of my childhood home for decades and I discovered a couple years before the house was sold.  The exterior of the rough-sawn block was very tough and there was a huge knot in it.  

I had been looking to do a large relief when an acquaintance shared a sketch she had made.  I loved the position and it fit the size of that old block, but the knot went through the legs and would have made that part of the carving impossible.   I then realized that if I changed the subject into a mermaid, I could work around the knot.


Eastern White Pine, polyurethane finish, July 2021.


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