I did these two wax sculptures as part of a sculpture workshop. I worked from a sketch for each sculpture. I’m not happy with the results, I think you can hardly tell what they are, especially since the wax is so light. However it is still worth recording, and could prompt some more three dimensional work if relevant.
Since I am working from sketches I found working three dimensionally a good way to think about the space in my paintings; like the space between the shoulder and the face, the way an arm can rest anatomically or how the head rests on a pillow – the weightiness also of the body on a bed.
It was very hard to do! I think because my mind is so used to working on a flat surface, I ended up doing more of an engraving than a 360 sculpture. But that is also down to the shape of the wax mould I made. It was also tricky because the act of removing unwanted wax means if I made a mistake and removed too much wax it couldn’t be undone.
Perhaps sculpture could be useful for thinking about bodies in beds and in relation to surroundings. Working with a material that is more tactile and malleable, where I build up the form on a larger scale.
I have worked with clay in the past and it worked well for sculpting the creases of pillows and duvets – it’s funny that when working with clay in the past I was working with the same subject -beds – that I am now. Huh.
This is something to keep in mind :).
Georgina Harris 