Producing Work at Guldagergaard Studio

My intention is to focus on producing work suitable for wood-firing in the 'Woodfiring Marathon' coming up in August. I aim to produce a variety of work in different scales and to experiment with surface techniques, for both standing sculptures and wall pieces.

I have selected a strong, groggy local clay which fires to a fairly buff colour at high temperatures. Below is my first figurative sculpture complete within the first couple of days. The clay came out of the bag much wetter than home and took a while to become my friend!

Below I am working in the studio on the first part of my 'windmill' piece - I wont be making 22 of these big boys but that IS the number I saw spanning the skyline from the bus window! Almost 20% of the power generated in Denmark is through the use of wind turbines - it was impressive flying over the landscape too! On July 6th, I made a presentation to the other artists in residence. The audience included artists from Japan, UK, US, China and Denmark. I discussed the key influences on my work to- date and showcased a selection of the most recent pieces shown in FUSIONS. Feedback and discussions with the artists post-presentation gave me a good reflection in terms of seeing how 'very-Australian' my work is. One of the American artists commented 'Now I know what Australia is like!'.

I found it special to hear that Sten Lykke Madsen, Danish artist (and National Treasure!) connected with my human forms because the qualities were similar to that of his late father, a figurative painter here in Denmark.

It has been exciting and fun working beside Sten in the studio - at his ripe age of 72 - still producing and exhibiting his sculptures throughout Europe, that is inspiring!

Here Sten Lykke Madsen explains one of his favourite artists to Akio and I