20 Dec
Brazilian Soapstone, Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

Chris Farley

C. Farley Fat Bear In A Little Boat

I posted this photo yesterday on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  My name for this carving is;  C. Farley A Fat Bear in A Little Boat.

I loved Chris Farley’s humour and I Still do even though he passed away 20 years ago yesterday.  Can that really be true?  It seems too long ago. I still watch his  road trip movie ; Tommy Boy whenever it comes on and of course old SNL skits.  Humour is a basic need in life. Like friendships, humour is that something that makes a bad day better and a great day awesome.  Injecting some humor into my carvings I believe shows that soapstone art can be anything the carver makes it.  An aggressive eagle, the tree of peace or this fat bear in a little boat.  I believe in art reflecting the artist and his or her interests.  This piece of art does that.

Talking technically for a moment,   I made the paddle and for someone with large size hands that was a feat in itself..  The boat and the bear are all one piece of Brazilian soapstone. This piece of art makes me smile every time I see it just like the real Chris Farley made me smile.  One day someone will feel the same and buy it for their mantle or office and smile.

Enjoy your life, enjoy the upcoming holidays and buy art!!

15 Dec
Brazilian Soapstone, Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

Bear in motion

Going For Shore Pose 1

A bear in motion stays in motion.

At least when this bear, (he or she) is immortalized in stone.  This carving was given the name ‘Phelps’, (You might be able to figure out when I was carving it and it wasn’t during Shark Week) and will forever be in motion.  Swimming , doing the front crawl is a totally different  activity than a dancing bear .  A dancing bear is vertical and not horizontal but also, dancing requires the balance of one small foot.  How many swimming stone bears are out in the world?  I am not sure.

I do know that, swimming bears are not classic soapstone carving models .  This works on multiple levels as , I am not a classic soapstone carver either .

The motion of moving through the water is captured by the position of the paws but the abstraction of the back paws frees up the viewer to realize that he is not moving through the forest.  Also, the Brazilian soapstone colours add to the sense of depth of this bear.  The sleekness of the clear Kote, the colour of the stone and the motion captured.  You know you want to touch it.

Love it when a carving comes together.

I haven’t felt the urge to carve another swimming bear since Phelps.  There is only one.  As for carving bears in motion however, I am 99% sure I will keep carving those.

Please check out my shop pages for all sorts of art that may interest you to take home.

Thank you for coming by.

09 Dec
Brazilian Soapstone, Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

The United colours of Soapstone

I can’t say it enough.  Soapstone is a very colourful medium.

It sounds like I have a schoolboy crush on soapstone and I do. – strange as that sounds.  All of the pieces shown above are carved by me and all in soapstone.  There are always more colours and densities that I would love to try out. I really want to get my hands on some red and some aquamarine as the next challenges but, this spectrum is keep me in carving bliss.

The white and pink stones in the photos here are  Asian  and very soft.  If someone wanted to try their hand at carving,  those two are like carving butter.  Just be careful because unlike butter you can’t stick it back together if you make a mistake.  In elementary schools the children sometimes carve blocks of soap.  Perfect for trying out the carving skills.  Butter and soaps don’t have the dust of the actual stone so there is no chance of breathing in dust

The black  is Canadian and this piece of stone started life in Northern Quebec.  Then we have the big bear; Bonneville.  All one piece of Brazilian soapstone.  I have no idea what part of Brazil this boulder began life but, I picked the boulder out of a stone field here in Canada from a supplier.  Selling rocks is a business and people like me connect with other people to know about those people.

I don’t see it as tricky skill to pick a boulder and turner it into a bear but some might say it is; the magic of art.

Image result for open source photo of soapstone boulder

This is not THE boulder that Bonneville was carved from but, you get the idea.

If you would like to see more of my work, check out the shop pages.

Thank you for looking in.

04 Dec
Brazilian Soapstone, Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

Still a fan of Brazilian Soapstone

Same fish different , different side

 

Okay, I am a fan of Brazilian Soapstone, not so much of limestone, maybe alabaster is a close second.  The reasoning is as simple as, that I think the beauty of Brazilian soapstone has a depth of colour that marble and limestone don’t have.This is shown with this fish that I carved a little while ago.  It is one piece of stone.

One ‘rock’ gives ; browns , blues and I have left the base essentially in it’s raw state with just some hint of watermarks.  A client who purchases this piece would get two  fish for the price of one if you think of these things in terms of home decor. Can you pick the wet, muddy stream and the fish catching the light so in one turn he or she is brown and at the next jump he looks green?

The beauty of soapstone. The artist has to work with the stone but, the inherent colours and lines of the stone, lend themselves so well to this jumping fish.

Are people tired yet that I say; soapstone carver instead of stone artist or just artist?  Maybe , and the general public may not care at first glance whether my art is made from soapstone or any other type of stone.  But, I do.

And anyone that looks at my art or any other stone artist feels the intrinsic love of the colours that show up  in the stone. For me it is particularly satisfying when I work with Brazilian soapstone.

I am a carver, I carve what I see in the stone, (yes mostly bears but, other things like this fish as well).

Can’t you just picture being at a stream and seeing the fish jump up and catch a bit of the reflection of the water? The beauty of stone art.