Part 3 Project 5 Ex 4

Statues

For this task I have to make a drawing of a statue. I am able to choose so I have selected one that might better be called sculpture.  The statue is part of the Sculpture Trail in Rufford Park (1) and I'm very fond of it because I've known it for a long time and it always makes me smile.  When they were small my children loved to pose with the statue.  My grandchildren now do the same thing. The piece invites involvement.

The sculpture, Young Girl, was created by John R Meikle but I can't find a date for it.  The artist took a plaster cast of his daughter and then re-modelled and carved it before casting it in aluminium.

Young Girl by John R Meikle
Rufford Park

The model is adolescent with a still quite boyish figure and casual clothes.  The texture is smooth and invites touch and has a freshness that goes well with the subject.  There are shiny parts and patches of oxidation with mould on.  I find it a very sensitive piece of sculpture.

This figure is just about the same height as me and it seemed a bit obvious to draw it standing directly in front of it.  I chose to draw a view from the side but as it was starting to rain I hurriedly took some more detailed photographs expecting to have to curtail my work.

Young Girl at the slight angle I wanted to use

The neck  (detail)

Folds of the tee shirt (detail)

I went round the back and it was almost as interesting as the front.

The back of Young Girl

I wanted to capture the smoothness and sensitivity of Young Girl.  I decided to use graphite stick because of the colour and the fact that I could shape it with tone.  I used a fine eraser as a tool to lift out light shades in very specific places.

Young Girl - graphite

I drew the bones of this outdoors and brought it home to complete.  There is no way that I could have spent this amount of time outside in the rain and made such a good job!  Although she seems to lean forward a bit I'm delighted with it.





(1) http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/enjoying/countryside/countryparks/rufford/