Sculptural Carving
Detail of ‘The Returning’ by Chris Pye, oak (15" tall), 1995
Sample student exercise for Sculptural Carving
Chris Pye
June 18 – 22
This course is for wood artists and furniture makers who want to create successful sculpted forms and work effectively with carved and shaped components. Chris guides students through a series of individual, non-representational carving exercises and projects that explore the ‘visual language’ of wood sculpture, such as the interaction of volume and space, light and shadow, movement and rhythm, texture and line. Chris asks nothing less than that we start seeing the world around us differently.
Students also learn technical aspects of carving-in-the-round as needed, working with traditional woodcarving tools such as gouges and chisels, and with wood shaping tools such as rasps and rifflers.
From his studio in Herefordshire, England, Chris Pye works on a broad spectrum of commissions, including lettering, heraldry, furniture ornamentation, architectural carving, and sculpture. A Member of the Master Carvers Association, clients include HRH the Prince of Wales. Chris has some thirty years of experience as a carver, and is the author of five books published by GMC Publications Ltd.: Woodcarving Tools, Materials, and Equipment (1994; 2002), Carving on Turning (1995), Lettercarving in Wood (1997), Relief Carving – A Practical Introduction (1998) and Elements of Woodcarving (2000). For more information, visit Chris’s website at www.chrispye-woodcarving.com.