WEB Wildflowers: Tole Sculptures By Carmen Almon

Wildflowers

In France I live in a region that is renowned for its fields of wildflowers. It has never seen industry, and is mostly unsuited to farming. And so flowers have grown there free and wild, untamed and unhampered -- efflorescing in their myriad ways since prehistory.

Most of these sculptures are based on the specimens I have gathered from just around my home and studio.  I took pictures of them as they grew. And then I would uproot them, rushing back to my studio where they served as models. Wildflowers, you see, don’t last long -- so I have to sketch quickly, recording growth patterns, tracing leaves and petals, and making samples before they wilted. And then, finally, I would begin constructing and painting the full scale sculptures at my leisure.  

I hope I have managed to capture in metal and paint the fleeting, yet timeless quality of nature, and the essence of this special plot of land that means everything to me.

Carmen Almon

 This show would not have been possible without my husband Thierry, who makes the roots, the stands, and provides me with the support each and every day. I would also like to thank Ngoc Minh Ngo for her beautiful photographs. And lastly, to Pierre Durand who has seen fit to mount this, the third show of my work at The Chinese Porcelain Company over the course of the last six years.

Click below links for NY Times Articles

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/t-magazine/poetic-and-lifelike-botanical-sculptures.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/t-magazine/carmen-almon-the-naturalist.html

 

 

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