Yesterday’s paper maquette was developed a stage further today. What started as this:
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has moved on to a more fully-worked version.
Rather more sinister, I think. I’m looking for a grittiness and a sense of the pieces not quite fitting.
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More photographic reference of a mask improvised from a scarf, this time worn by a Basque Separatist.
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I’ve made three versions of the maquette’s head: the one above with a bonnet, this one with a flat straw hat…
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… and this one with no hat at all.
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Although I’m working through a lot of ideas in the process of producing the figure, it’s when I start on the painting itself that the maquette will really come into its own as a compositional aid. In fact I’ll be making a total of five maquettes for this one painting.
In some ways getting life-models into the studio would be less trouble, and indeed I occasionally use them. However what suits me best is the creative processes of making and then using maquettes. Sometimes I reconfigure them, changing heads and body parts for different projects, which is more than you can do with a live model! The maquette for the painting Green George, later grew wings and was cast as Angel Gabriel in The Virgin of the Goldfinches before making a final appearance as Angel Raphael in the Tobias and the Angel painting titled The Rapture. (After that, a well-earned retirement, framed and hanging in the bedroom of Sam Joseph, who set his heart on the maquette for his birthday last year.)
Well-loved and well-used maquettes rest in box-files awaiting paintings they may be suitable for. I have some of the first ones I made, still in regular use. My repertory company of paper actors!
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I also like the built-up, hodgepodge clothing, and the hat. And I love the idea of you having a repertory company in a box, ready to act at the opening of the lid. (What fun it was, the day of the maquette movie! They do have a cunning life of their own.)
The day we recorded your voice-over for the maquette-movie was indeed a magical one. I recall the walk down to the stream afterwards, and tea in Pete and Swsi’s garden.
It’s true that the maquettes become imbued with what amounts to a life of their own. They frequently lead me in directions I hadn’t planned, and that is always a good thin, because it keeps me inventive and and encourages spontaneity when I’m at the easel.
Absolutely agree, the straw hat really creates a greater malevolence, more powerful.
L xxx
Lorrie, as I live and breathe! Welcome to the Artlog.
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xxx
Wonderful to see what you are doing, seems to be my destiny to be involved with brilliant artists. Still in the midst of making a doc about a sculptor, has gone on for years, documenting his work. 2012 was a bad year for me too, unproductive. Father dying had a more profound effect than expected. Have left message for you on FB.
L xxx
Some years are just bad and need to be seen off. 2012 was such a year for us. We lost a great friend and Peter’s brother too. I was glad to see the back of it.
I’m sorry to hear of your father’s death, and the fact that you were hit hard by it. Tough to be hit so hard by a death, but in so many ways it would be much worse to be unaffected. The day I am not moved by a death will be the day I’m ready to quit. Grief is the price we pay for love. The greater the love…
Nevertheless, awful to get through. Be strong Lorrie, and hold fast.
PS. Saw your Facebook message and replied. Lovely to hear from you.
Oh yes, she’s definitely turned to the dark side now Clive. That flat brimmed straw hat is an inspired touch. Somehow it makes her more malevolent!
There we are. Would that all life’s problems could be solved by making a maquette. I was wedded to a bonnet and would have struggled to make it work in the painting. But this has demonstrated that the alternative much better conveys the creepiness I’m after. Ha ha! The malevolent straw hat! Sounds like something from the imagination of Edward Gorey!
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Spookier and spookier, this figure is downright scary now, brilliantly realised. your maquettes are wonderful, powerful things, I remember when you brought some to the workshop in Skettly Clive and the excitement they gave me when you put them on the table, they’re a bit alive themselves you half expect them to move.
I can see the beginnings of a great horror story in this post too – the mad artist who uses life models but changes their heads and body parts to get the right effect haha.
Mmmmm. Which reminds me, sweet boy, I’ve been meaning to ask whether you might model for me in the studio. I have you in mind for a martyred saint.
(Tee hee!)
Spooky stuff! I agree the flat straw hat works brilliantly. The shadow especially. The besom held like a rifle, all shiver-making.
(One wonders how much thought went into the Basque separatist’s hood. Do you think he measured where the cut-outs should go?)
Ha ha! I should think it more likely his mum all but took his eyes out by shoving a scissors through to cut the holes while he was wearing the mask!
PS. I’ve just realised that here we are, you an ex-head of scenic art at the Welsh National Opera, and me an ex-designer and director, having a conversation that we might well have had in our previous professions!
Jacqui Hicks too was once a wardrobe supervisor, and her comment… the first on this post… identified the flat straw hat as the one that worked the best.
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Hey -we’ve nearly got a complete team!
(ps. I love the idea of the Basque separatist’s mum!!)
He He yes you can hear her calling as he is leaving the house “Manuel don’t forget your pillowcase with the eyeholes!” Liz did you ever know anyone called Colin Sharp at WNO? I met him when I was a teenager in Sheffield and he visited with his cousin. Remember nothing more except he spelled his name C# which we all thought very witty. He’d be between 50/56 now I would guess.
WOW! i love all three heads…the first is my favorite, though–hideous! and the clamoring of patterns on her clothing is fantastic, perfect!
‘clamouring of patterns’ Excellent!
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The flat straw hat definitely has a more masculine look with the shadow of the brim looking almost mask-like over the mask – double scary masks!
Yeah, that’s the trick, to make the figure suggest a man dressed up as a woman, which is quite a subtlety to pull off when the face is covered. The flat straw hat definitely works better in that respect.
I like the straw hat with the mask. The womans bonnet would work with an obvious male face… say with a beard… but the straw hat is quirky work. x
I think you’ve won me over. ‘Quirky work’ is what we want!