Progress photos of new gnome

 At over a yard tall, this gnome is one of my larger projects.

The stock is a single air-dried 3 inch thick pine board harvested locally.  It was roughed in with a chainsaw and the initial shaping was done with Arbortech tools.  The final shaping is being done with gouges and chisels.

I plan to stain and paint it when the shaping is complete.  The cracks and checks from the air drying process will be left as is.




Eastern White Pine, 2021/2022, no finish (in process)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fast Face Tutorial 2.1

Image
 I originally published this tutorial online in 1997 on the New England Wood Carvers website and recently I have noticed versions of it missing the attribution.  The tutorial was removed around the time I turned the site over to the person who maintained it after me. Since the original posting, golfball carving came into vogue and this technique works with those as well. It's added here for the benefit of anyone to use.   Cut a 1.25" long piece of 1x1 in half diagonally for your blank. Use a coping or bandsaw to first remove the corners then to make two stop cuts to divide the face into thirds. From now on we will use only the carving knife. Take your knife and cut up to the stop cuts: First from the bottom of what will be the nose to the eyebrows, Second from the mouth area up to the nose. Now remove a chip from the forehead and the chin. Remove a chip from either side of the nose to define the eyebrow. Remove a chip from either side of the mouth to define the top of the mus
Read more

Parthenon Griffon

Image
 In August of 2023 I was fortunate enough to visit the Parthenon in Nashville, TN.  On each corner of the roof and at one location inside the building there were heroic sized statues of griffons.  Based on the understanding of the original Parthenon at the time, the artists believed the griffons were on the corners of the room to protect the treasures held within.  Current understanding is that it is more likely that the original roof statues represented Nike extending a laurel wreath. This photo of one of the griffons was taken on a Monday: By Friday of the same week I had created my version of the design, executed the sculpture, painted and finished it. 2023.  Recycled black walnut, acrylic paint, and polyurethane finish.
Read more

Arts League of Lowell: Abstraction

Image
 My work entitled "Hexagonal Asymmetry" has been accepted for the Arts League of Lowell 's upcoming show entitled "Abstraction". Generally my works have been representative and the theme for this show was an interesting departure from that.  Within moments of learning of the theme I had settled on a basic design but it took weeks before I was content with the approach before I started making sketches. The show runs from January 12, 2024 to March 3, 2024 "Hexagonal Asymmetry" December 2023.  Laminated Butternut, polyurethane finish.
Read more