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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
46September/October 2015
T
HE passion for art had been
there since I was a child
though I hadn’t created any
works of art since I was fifteen
years old, thirty-three years
ago. In early I was sitting on my
mother’s couch, unemployed for over a
year and I decided to start creating
some art work. I began to create colour
pencil drawings, three a day, A in size,
and did so for the entire year. At the end
of the year I had created one thousand
drawings.
On seeing this collection, a family
member decided to get my art appraised
to see if the drawings were worth any-
thing and if so, to get an estimated price
range. I was pleasantly surprised with
the outcome, the appraiser priced the
A drawings at between 1 and 1
each. The feedback I received about my
work was a great confidence boost.
Around that time I began reading a
book on ancient Egyptian tomb discov-
eries and eventually completely lost
myself in it. I even went as far as using a
magnifying glass to look deep into the
artwork sculptures illustrated in the
book. The inspiration took hold and I
started to design and execute sculp-
tures. My first project was to mould a
block of plaster of Paris into a hand. I
prepared the lump of gypsum but had to
wait about three months for it to dry.
While I waited, I honed a horse out of a
rump of teak hardwood – my first wood
carving. This item turned out surpris-
ingly well for a first attempt.
I decided on regular wood chisels for
the wood, and sandpaper to achieve a
smooth finish. I then coated it with a
varnish called “itch”.
When the plaster block was com-
pletely dry I began to carve it and it took
about three weeks to finish. I again used
wood chisels to fashion the hand and
then glazed the finished limb with fibre-
glass resin to strengthen it, giving it a
bone colour. It is called “Archaeology
Dig ”.
At that point I decided to create a
sculpture of Tutankhamun’s mask. I
chose a “terracotta das air dry” model-
ling clay, which I mounted on a glass
CULTURE Sculpture
A neophyte gets moulding.
By Kenneth Ruxton
My rst
sculpture
September/October 2015 47
plate standing on a teak base. The stand
of the sculpture is key to the entire
design of this project. From previous
experience in construction work and
time spent doing architectural draw-
ings, I was able to design and build the
stand. I wanted the stand to be a strong
structural feature of the sculpture piece.
which is called “Sleeping Tut”.
My next project was the horse’s head,
also made from “das air dry” modelling
clay. When this item was finished and
dried I painted it with a white paint. It is
called “Sleeping Beauty”.
All these sculptures are my own
designs and I did not use drawings or
images to copy from. My technique is:
prepare the plaster and then recreate
the design in my head on to the plaster. I
found it compelling to work on projects
without a plan or drawing and to await
the outcome of each creation.
As a novice sculptor I did reach a
point where my experience let me down,
and cheap modelling clay resulted in
various problems.
For example – I made a base structure
out of foam, coper and sculpture flexible
metal. I used a metal bracket which I
covered with the cheap clay, not know-
ing that the clay would shrink %. The
metal and foam prevented the clay from
sinking so the clay simply cracked eve-
rywhere. This was the start of the girl
with the water jug sculpture.
I did not give up, at this point I
decided to change clay (I had an idea
what the problem was due to my con-
struction work experience). I bought
the expensive clay and it was worth
every penny. I covered the entire frame
and began to shape and form the piece,
the water pot on her head was made
separately and placed on top when she
was complete.
The original sculpture design was just
the head and the jug on top. After it was
finished I decided to give her arms to
hold the pot, she was than painted
white. It is called “Water Girl”.
Not knowing what to do with the left-
over cheap modelling clay, I had to think
of something that I could sculpt without
needing a wire frame, that was when I
chose to create the abstract Pharaoh
piece.
This has no inner frame and it was
created on a flat surface. It was much
bigger in size when it was first shaped
but duly shrank the %. It is called
“Abstract Akanaton”.
The hand with the ball is a sculpture
that I created when issues of global
warming were being heavily discussed. I
created the ball first and sometime later
added the hand. It was made using a
metal bracket I got in B&Q that was
angled perfectly for the hand to hold out
the ball, like a snowball in a hand. It is
called “Ice Age”.
The final piece was created while Brit-
ain was deciding whether to change the
law about altering human DNA.
This subject is interesting to me since,
for deep-space exploration, it would be
impossible for humans to endure long
flight, but it would be possible with the
use of changed human DNA.
Anyway… this subject inspired the
creation of this last piece: an angel hug-
ging an egg. The ball was created first
and the angel was then added later, it
was originally painted white.
After all the individual items were
created and finished I decided to paint
the collection a gold colour.
This turned them into an art installa-
tion piece, an abstract tomb discovery
collection from ancient Egypt. It’s an
artist’s abstract impressionism of “ Tuts
Tomb”. •
www.kennethruxton.eu
This Art Sculpture installation is on public
display at “The Oar House Restaurant” on
the west pier Howth harbour
Prepare the
plaster and
then recreate
the design in
my head onto
the plaster
“
