The road to the Royal Academy Summer Show

HELLO DOLLY

Hannah Arendt is to blame.

Dolly came about as a direct result of frustration with trying to get Hannah Arendt’s extraordinary features to morph into some kind of logical workable representation in clay. I needed a break. And along came Dolly.

During lockdown, in between teaching at a near empty huge comprehensive school in north Oxford, I started working on some new portraits. No-one had ever asked me to make a portrait of a woman, and I so wanted to. Now I had some time to myself in the studio, and here was my opportunity. Women writers was my theme, and I started with Virginia Woolf.

My vision was of a group of women writers from all over the world, expanding slowly as I had the time and means to create them. A new kind of Writers’ Circle was what I had in mind. My first three women were to be Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison and Hannah Arendt.

Virginia Woolf, Clay Model, closing stages

Apologies for the not-so great lighting. My previous studio at Ilmington Manor in Warwickshire was sublime, but the tiny diamond-glazed windows were not ideal for this kind of work. Here I talk you through some of the thought processes as well as the practical actions that happened in order to create a portrait bust.

Virginia Woolf, clay model finished

Here you can see the completed clay model. I now needed to leave it open to the air for a day or two, in order to toughen up the surface and prepare it for casting. If the surface is too wet, then details will get lost or distorted when I start to paint on the silicone rubber.

And this shows one of the stages in making a mould for the plaster cast.

Virginia Woolf: silicone mould completed

Below you can see the completed plaster shell covering the silicone mould. I made this in 3 pieces because of all the undercuts in this model. Having three pieces means (in theory) it will be easier to extract the finished plaster cast from the mould. I say in theory because the chances of things going wrong are still sadly extant. It’s all very heavy now with the amount of clay used, and the weight of wet plaster, so it’s not easy for me to handle by myself.

Here you can see the release of the mould and the mother mould, and how the first casting went.

Releasing the first cast of my bust of Virginia Woolf from the mould.

You can see the finished plaster cast in my Gallery. Meanwhile, on to the next challenge. Toni Morrison. Well that was a bigger undertaking than I had imagined. Trying to capture her was really hard, and I so wish I could have met her and drawn her. As is usual with my subjects, I read her works, watched documentaries about her, and also listened to many of her talks.