THE TWO INVITAITIONAL COUNTRY CRAFT FAIR AND OLD FASHIONED MERCANTILE - SEA DOG

when I was away in China I worked on another piece beside The Mermaid. The second piece that I took with me to China was just a piece of wood. I had thought that it would be an animal figure. I was not sure what kind of animal it would be but I knew it would be an animal. After I did some preliminary carving to create a general animal shape it became evident that it would be a dog. My youngest daughter's rottweiler, Diesel,  came to mind so I used the rottweiler species as a model for my carving. I found many examples of rottweilers on the internet that helped me as I modeled my piece. It was remarkable in a way, I did most of the roughing out on a rainy Saturday afternoon in my hotel room in Nanning, China. I did the final shaping, sanding and finishing when I returned home to Canada.

After I had finished sanding the dog with the last grade of sandpaper, 800 grit, I decided that the dog needed something to sit on. I found a piece of found wood in my collection of found wood that I thought was perfect. I sanded the base but not to the same luster as the dog. I wanted the base to have a wind swept, water worn look to it. In addition, I thought that the dog required a name. I decided to call him Sea Dog. I roughly carved the name "Sea Dog" into the front of the base to give it a ragged looked then I sanded the entire area where I had carved the name to give it a washed out look.

After treating the base with several solutions of Tung oil cut by thinners I applied a coating of cabinet makers wax to seal and protect the surface.

Now, everything is assembled. Sea Dog is attached to his base with a dowel pin that I glued into a hole in the base and a corresponding hole in the bottom of Sea Dog. i was a little nervous because there is not that much material in the base of Sea Dog and I did not want to break through the wood with my Forstner bit that I used to drill the hole.

The last thing that I did was attach the two glass eyes into place. I used two old pins that had rust heads. I cut the pins short then pushed the pins into Sea Dogs head which firmly seated the glass eyes into position. I do have to say that Sea Dog has a forlorn look sitting on his piece of floating debris.

Sea Dog ensconced on his bit of driftwood

He definitely has a mournful look!

You can see how the piece of wood that Sea Dog is sitting on is well worn

This end is almost completely eroded

I left most of the wood intact in the back, holes and all.

some of the letters are clear and prominent. Others have almost completely faded away.

THE MERMAID

Well, here she is, The Mermaid, mounted on her stand. I chose this piece of wood to be the stand because it gives the appearance that she is rising up out of the ocean on a crest of a wave.

I glued her to a post and tried to make it as inconspicuous as possible. I wanted to create the illusion of floating. When I look at The Mermaid from a distance she reminds me of the first time that I saw the statue of Nike in the Louvre. When you stand at the bottom of the steps and look up you see this magnificent ethereal statue of Nike hovering at the top of the stairs.

 In the following pictures you can see the shell that The Mermaid is cradling against her chest. It would appear that she is protecting it.

I am happy with the way The Mermaid has turned out. Unlike the Siren who has a raw, overpowering sensuality, The Mermaid has a more ethereal quality that us just as alluring. She will be just as effective in luring sailors to crash onto the rocky shores that they inhabit.

LEONARDO DA VINCI AND THE MERMAID - THE TWO DAY INVITATIONAL COUNTRY CRAFT FAIR

When I travel, which is more often that I would like, I take something with me to work on. Sometimes it is drawings to work on or a study but most times I take a piece with me to work on. On my last trip to China I took two pieces  with me that were barely started. One piece was the one that I have come to call The Mermaid. I consider her to be the sister or at least a close cousin to The Siren. The other piece that I took with me was just a piece of wood at the time. I will leave that one for later. The reason that I took these two pieces with me is that I wanted to keep my momentum going on finishing pieces that I am preparing for the two day invitational Country Craft Fair and Old-Fashioned Market Mercantile. 


The interesting thing about the development of The Mermaid was that it became intertwined with the book that I was reading on Leonardo Da Vinci. I have written about Leonardo before when I published a post about the trip that I made with my wife, my son and his girlfriend to the Buffalo Science Museum to view the exhibit call Leonardo Da Vinci : Machines in Motion. the book on Leonardo that I was reading in China was called LEONARDO, by Martin Kemp. Martin Kemp is one of the greatest authorities on Leonardo Da Vinci  I was interested to read his insightful point of view on Leonardo's work.

I was not disappointed. Martin wrote about aspects of Leonardo's life that are usually not covered. He spent entire chapters discussing aspects of Leonardo's life and art that I have never read about before. At any rate, I will cover this book more fully in another post. It deserves a post of its own.

the point is that my imagination became so infused with art of Leonardo that I could see nothing else in my mind except the beautiful Madonnas that he painted. When I looked at the piece of wood that was going to become The Mermaid I saw the faces and the elegant poses of these Madonnas. As I developed the three studies I would eventually work from it became evident that I was using the painting of Lucrezia Crevelli, "La Belle Ferroniere", as my model.

Here are the studies that I did for The Mermaid.

At this point, The Mermaid was roughly carved. Only the major shapes were done. There was no detail.

Pretty neat wallpaper, isn't it?

I thought that the wallpaper in my hotel room went well with The Mermaid so I took a few pictures of her posing with the boats. It looks like she might capsize a few of them!

Here, she is almost finished. I still need to apply her final coat and them mount her onto base that I shaped to make her look like she is rising out of a wave. I will show that in another post.

I think The Mermaid will be an interesting piece at the Country Craft and Fair, that is unless someone snaps her up first!