

About six or seven years ago, a fellow artist gave me a photograph of two women. They thought I could possibly use it as inspiration for a sculpture. About a week and a half ago, I ran across the photo again, it struck my heart to see if I could pull off the idea in clay.
For artistic compositional sake…. I made the woman on the left taller and facing forward (to be the focal point). I arranged the wrinkles in their clothing to lead the viewers eye around the piece. Notice the subtle 5 points of entry, to bring the viewer into the sculpture.
Don’t you just love that hat! The double rows of cartridges on the gun belt?
“Of Proper Wit & Adventurous Spirit” Edition of 30
This piece was started about a year ago. Built it up…tore it down….built it up….tore it down. Got disgusted with it….researched rearing horses out the wazoo. Looked at 487 pictures of rearing horses. Set it aside for five months. Spent two weeks on it….set it aside again. Would sit in “my sculpture looking at chair” for hours, pondering this piece. Finally saw what was not working…..here is my best effort.
ScottRogersSculpture.com
It’s a funny thing I’ve noticed about myself over the years. Often, when I come up with a concept that I feel strong about, I have to sculpt the subject two or three times to exhaust my mind “off of it”. Otherwise the idea haunts me. Such was the case with this one…..it is my second bookend. I’m finding I may have a third one in me……of a woman in a chair, as a book end (we’ll see).
I tried to upload a video in this post. I’m not sure if it will work or not.
“Rescue” gets a new patina.
At the foundry with my patina man, Kike. Going for the European old school look.
“Base Ball” is finally in the ‘mold room’ at the foundry. T’will be August 2015 when the first castings come out.
18 1/2″ high c 32″ wide x 11″ deep
Edition of #50
Long before I began sculpting, I noticed that the Oval Office had sculptures in it. Remington’s “Bronco Buster”, a bust of Abraham Lincoln, until a few years ago, a bust of Churchill.
Once I became a sculptor, I thought, “One day I want to create a piece that would fit the aura of the office of the President of United States.”
In 25 years of sculpting, this may be as close as I’ve ever come.
I call it: “American Cowboy”.
Www.scottrogerssculpture.com
It’s taken a year….but finally got this bad boy to the foundry.
I’ve learned something about how I work. I do my finest sculpting when a piece is allowed to sit for a year and have me come with a fresh eye 8-10 times during that period.
“The Wrangler”
About 15 years ago I was visiting an artist friend in a remote location. The closest city of 1000 people was 10 miles away. Being completely surrounded by nature it was easy to pick out things that were man-made. Tin cans on the side of the road or stray pieces of paper / wrappers were easily identified.
At that time a thought occurred to me. Do my sculptures blend in with nature? I thought I would try an experiment. Having with me two or three sculptures in the back of my pick up, I went and got one out of the back of my pick up and set it amongst the sage brush and cedars. I was curious to see if it would fit in or stick out as something that didn’t belong.
From that time forward my goal has been to sculpt works of art that fit in with a natural landscape.
This is a new piece just delivered to a gallery for pre-cast sales.
Not firm on a title:
“War Horse” or “Big Medicine”
Does anyone both hear and act on “whispers” like I do? I find that when I listen to the faintest glimpse of an idea……I often find genius.
I’m driving to Santa Fe New Mexico and on my way I’m passing through Price, Utah. Out of the blue I get the idea to photograph a sculpture “now”. This is a piece that I don’t have a good photograph of the finished bronze. It’s inconvenient, I’d rather wait, perhaps find a better location, it’s freezing outside. But then I get the prompting a second time. And from past experience, I know that the prompting won’t be repeated again.
I set up my tripod and used my 35mm camera and took a dozen pictures.
I will take these photos home, upload to my computer and Photoshop the best one with the background of my choice.
THE PONY EXPRESS
Since my last post…….I bet I’ve spent another 20 hrs on this piece during the past three days. Finally getting close. “I think”.
My mentor once told me, “You spend 10% of the time roughing in 90% of the piece….and 90% of the time on the last 10% of the piece.” Truth.
To quote my mentor, Fritz White, “Being a sculptor is not for sissies”.
It’s been a long time since I’ve struggled with a piece as much as I have with this one. I’ve built it up and torn it down at least six different times.
Yesterday, the words echoed through my mind “nobility of concept”. They were the words of an artist, Garland Weeks, who I took a workshop from 18 years ago. That one phrase assisted me to make a few adjustments for the better.
I’ve learned that a huge part of what I do is “listening to the whispers”.
Up in Cody, Wyoming, at the Buffalo Bill Art Show (this past weekend), they hold what’s called a “Quick Draw” for artists to participate in. Artists are given one hour to complete a sculpture or painting. They are then auctioned off on the spot. It’s one of the most insane things I’ve ever participated in.
Here is my effort:
I’ll be in Santa Fe, sculpting at Sage Creek Gallery (421 Canyon Road) Santa Fe, New Mexico, until August 26th.
Putting final touches on:
“The Wrangler”. 65″ tall.
I love taking wax with me when I’ve got to sit a while. Being a passenger on a plane or in a car (or today getting my oil changed)….allows me to work on some of a pieces finer details in wax. This left hand is going on the man in the lower left side of this piece.
I’m calling it “Base Ball”. It depicts an 1890’s baseball team.