Moore and Dartmoor.
Went for a walk on Dartmoor today, and as usual spent as much time inspecting the shape of stone rubble on the moorland pathways as anything else. The stone around here is always intriguing, and I’ve wondered at times if there are patterns to the breaking up of stone by natural erosion – I seem to see many shapes repeatedly, and have also come to love many of the shapes that nature throws up seemingly randomly. Henry Moore seemed to have a similar experience on beaches, with his obsessive pebble collecting (And anyone who has been to the studio at Much Hadham will see many of his sculptures there in the shapes collected). So it may be a common experience to be seduced by shapes of stone that have no particular visual reference, but which draw us to them inexplicably (whilst others do not). I’ve also taken to having a camera with me to record pieces that I feel should become sculptures (or already were sculptures in all but completion by me!). In part, I’m intrigued by the power of abstract forms that seem to have no intentional design to them, and in finally pursuing this I have been to a local quarry and am having 200k of good variegated Cornish slate delivered for me to work on. I spent a few hours choosing shapes that already were quite stunning to me, and the intention is to finish the pieces with minimal intervention, perhaps emphasising shapes or bringing some forms to a fine finish, etc. (We’ll see!). This kind of slate, however, is brittle and fractures easily, so all the work will be with diamond discs and polishers. Hopefully I can end up with a few pieces that contain that element of randomness to balance much of my present work, which is, I feel, over-designed. One extreme to the other, perhaps….
Attached: a couple of pebbles in the hands of Henry Moore, and some emergent drawings. (With Moore, of course, one always feels that, even at its most abstract, there is an anthropomorphic element to the pieces. Here the pebbles in his hand could become another Reclining Figure, or another of the sculptures that echo bone structures).
