Course on Drawing and Bronze Sculpture, Priego 2010 (My work)

Northern Lapwings,
Bronze and iron, about 50 cm3.

Creation process


Casting wax model


Casting wax model with casting tree


Plaster blend coating (tabular alumina+colloidal silica+graphite+talc)


Adding of molochite


Removing wax hood at work


Pulling out the piece after removing casting wax. We get the ceramics shell mould


Ceramics shell mould


Crucible full of pieces of bronze ready to melt the piece


Micro melting kiln-the technique we used


The kiln during the melting process


Pulling out the piece. After melting bronze, it is placed in a container full of sand to cover the piece in order to avoid the knocking over and leaking of material in case the mould breaks down.


Removing the ceramics shell


Brushing the piece


Making the pedestal to assemble the piece

Course on Drawing and Bronze Sculpture, Priego 2010 (Drawings)

Nude portraits
Charcoal pencil on paper, 42x29,7 cm.



Luna, our fantastic model. Here she is almost asleep at the workshop waiting for the melting of a small spoon she had moulded.



Showing my drawings to Mr. Venancio Blanco to make the selection for the exhibition. I exhibited the two drawings at the beginning of this post.

Course on Drawing and Bronze Sculpture, Priego 2010 (Carmen Marcos' lecture)

Doctor of Fine Arts and Full Professor in Valencia Polytechnic, Mrs. Carmen Marcos, gave two lectures: one on her work (`Walking through a problem and its several solutions: sculpture as a vital need´) and in the other one she showed her work as a Professor and her specialization studies on ceramics shell.
A very interesting complement for the training we were receiving.



From left to right: Luis Cordero, Mrs. Marta Campos, Mª José, Santi, Bego, Bea, Lolita, Eusebio, Jorge, Irene, Vanesa, Gil, Andrés Ortega, Belén, Mr. José Antonio Aguilar, Rocío, the Town Councillor of Culture at Priego Town Hall, Andrés Naranjo, Paco, Dª Carmen Marcos, me and David.

Group photo of those present at the lecture in the Adolfo Lozano Sidro Museum, head office of the Municipal Foundation which organizes this course and the place where we drew in the mornings.

Course on Drawing and Bronze Sculpture, Priego 2010 (Closing ceremony)

Mr. Venancio Blanco, who, for personal reasons, arrived at the closing of the course. That night a dinner took place to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the course. I take the liberty of giving thanks, on behalf of those who have attended the course, to the teachers who have devoted their summer holidays to train us as sculptors.



From left to right: Jorge, Belén, Mª Carmen, Manuel, Mª José, Rocío, me, Luis Cordero, Yolanda, Andrés Naranjo, Ana, Mr. Venancio Blanco, Bea, Lolita, Mr. José Antonio Aguilar, Cristina, Irene, Gil, Andrés, Eusebio, Bego, Paco, Mr. Luis García and Mrs. Marta Campos.

As the saying goes: 'If you like the scratch, then you do not mind the lice', and, the same as last summer, I have devoted this August to improve my knowledge of Bronze Melting.It´s hard work but sharing my holidays with these marvellous people is worth it. I take this opportunity to send them all a warm hug.



These are the awarded pupils this year: Award for Sculpture to Irene; Consolation prize for Sculpture to Eusebio; Award for Drawing to Gil and Consolation prize for Drawing to Bea.



Andrés Naranjo, Yolanda, me, Luis and Tannia, with Luis's work.



Lolita -a lovely and hard-working person- and me, with my work.

The lesser kestrels at the Cathedral

Giraldillo
Oil painting on wood, 150x70 cm

In this post I show you the works (and some details of them) which I have presented to the exhibition:`The lesser kestrels at the cathedral´. It will be open to the public until November 21st at the Forum for Dioversity, Patio de Banderas, 16, in Seville, next to the Cathedral.


Giraldillo, Detail.


Lesser kestrel nestbox
Polychromed polyester, 52x40x25 cm


Falco naumanni male, detail


Inside of the nestbox, detail


Chicks, detail


Members of the AEAN who went to the opening. From right to left:Francis Hernández, José A. Sencianes, Manuel D. Galeote, Gabriel de la Riva and me.
Click here to see the catalogue.

Invitation to the opening of the exhibition: `The lesser kestrels at the Cathedral´

Next September 7th, the exhibition: `The Lesser Kestrels at the Cathedral´ will be opened in the Forum for Biodiversity at the Patio de Banderas next to the Cathedral of Seville. The event will be chaired by His Excellency the Mayor of Seville and Mr. Fernando Hidalgo-Institutional Coordinator of the Casa de la Ciencia in Seville. It will be opened from September 7th until November 21st.

In future entries I will show you the works I am going to participate with.

I lend you my painting if you want to shoot it

I lend you my painting if you want to shoot it.
Circaetus gallicus
Oil painting on wood, about 60 x 130 cm.

Here I show you a work I made for my first exhibition with the group Artists for Nature, in 2007. It was in the CIECEMA exhibition hall in Almonte.
A peculiarity of this work is that when I had finished the painting stage, I asked my friend Antonia Mª Pichardo’s father to shoot it as a sort of performance, trying to “offer” my work as the target for hunters, instead of shooting the real animal.
Among the texts included in the work, besides the title, this short poem stands out:


Hermosa ave de los cielos de mi adolescencia
Excelente viajera, visitadora de África, cruzadora de estrechos
Maravilla del sur que enriquece nuestra primavera



I lend you my painting if you want to shoot it.
Circaetus gallicus
Detail

Wildlife Art Cáceres 2010

Crane, Grus grus
Oil painting on wood, 42x37'5 cm.



Falco naumanni
Watercolour on paper, 25x24'5 cm.



Passer domesticus
Watercolour on paper, 25x24'5 cm.

Next Friday, May 14th, 8.30 p.m., at the Cultural Centre Saint George in Cáceres, the exhibition “Wildlife art, the image of nature” will be opened, as part of the activities of the Birds Festival organized by the Extremadura Department of Tourism and Culture, also collaborating Cáceres Town Hall, SEO Birdlife and the Spanish Association of Artists for Nature.
I will participate in the event with these three works; they will share room with other works made by some members of the group.

Painting in Seville

Study of Falco naumanni (male),
Watercolour on paper, 29'7x21 cm.



Heads, study of sexual dimorphism,
Watercolour and graphite pencil drawing on paper, 29'7x21 cm.



Study of proportions,
Graphite pencil drawing on paper, 29'7x21 cm.

Great day painting in Seville. Last Saturday morning, some members of AEAN (including me) went to the Patio de las Banderas, where the Forum for Diversity is located, to spend the day drawing Lesser Kestrels (Falco naumanni).
I show you some paintings made on site, some of them possible with the help of the telescopes which, kindly, my colleagues lent to me.
This day is part of a group project which will have a second stage of working at the studio and will end with an exhibition in Seville by the end of the year.

Riópar Viejo

Riópar Viejo
Watercolour on paper, 50x25 cm.



Detail of Black Redstart- Phoenicurus ochrunos-



Detail of the tombstone, plate fixed to iron cross. Adornment: some old plastic flowers.

This entry shows a very emotional work for me. I drew it in a visit to Riópar Viejo-near Riópar-Albacete- in the middle of the Segura Mountains. There, high up on the hill, in the middle of a valley, there is an old cemetery now turned into scenic view. And, on the cross, the little bird.

The mould of the Lynx

Silicone mould

After a long absence, I show you a stage in the creation process of the work “Iberian Lynx”. The final work, which is a dermoplasty, needs a hard creative process which begins with the modeling of the piece; preferably in wax, as the products employed to make the moulds do not “accept” humidity. So we rule out clay, which would make it all more difficult, requiring an additional "relief printing" in plaster. We will continue with the making of a silicone mould- it allows making various “copies”. This is a complicated technique. Once we have the mould we have to make a copy of it in polyester and fiberglass. We put glass eyes and paint it with oil painting. The work is finished when it is placed in a real-size model (diorama).

Druso - Felis silvestris

Druso
Graphite pencil drawing on paper, 30x23 cm.



Druso (detail)
Graphite pencil drawing on paper, 30x23 cm.

Last October I travelled to Riópar, a small village in the Segura Mountains in Albacete. There is a Nature Education Centre, “La Dehesa”, where you can see lots of animals of the Iberian fauna in captivity. Among them, Druso, a wild cat which was taken to the Centre when it was very young. It was bred as a domestic cat. As it is not afraid of humans, you can watch it easily. This is a portrait of Druso.

Illustration of the literary journail `Pan de Trigo´, No. 57

`Pan de Trigo´ Cover, No. 57
Alcedo atthis,
Digitally touched up graphite pencil drawing on paper, 29x7x21 cm (original)



Lutra lutra,
Ink drawing on paper, 42x29,7 cm.



Podiceps nigricollis,
Ink drawing on paper, 29x7x21 cm.

Last December, my colleague Isabel Del Rey- President of the Literary Association “Pan de Trigo”- offered me, once again, to collaborate with the group in the 57th number of the journal. Here are the illustrations I made.


A countryside view II


A countryside view I


The blue-beaked duck