THE BEGINNING

 

In June 2002, I watched the television broadcast of the extraordinary performance of Brian May playing the National Anthem from high on the roof top of Buckingham Palace, at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

I was enthralled by a performance so full of verve, concentration and exciting movement, combined with the big and unique sound of Brian May’s guitar tribute to Her Majesty the Queen. The image of power of both the music and the man was perfect to encapsulate into permanency in sculpture form and the challenge to do so became ‘The Roof Top’ project for me.

Over a period of time, I made many sketch book drawings and also explored my ideas both two and three dimensionally. This work confirmed my view that I could make a series of images, based on Brian and the event, in various art forms.

I always, as part of a procedure that I have followed for many years, when working on major projects, study any subject and the characters of my subject, as deeply as possible. So often these characters are extraordinary and idiosyncratic which is why, where practical, I strive to meet and talk with them to gain further insight on them.

And so it was in the case of Brian; I wanted to meet with him to discuss the unique event and his spell-binding performance and his thoughts on his performance, to help me to meet the challenge of telling that story in sculpture of what happened on that day on ‘The Roof Top’.

Time passed and ‘The Roof Top’ project lay partially completed and dormant, awhile. Then, one day, a good friend of mine, Roger Pinnington, who is also a friend of Brian’s, was in my studio chatting about my on going work. I showed Roger my work on ‘The Roof Top’ project and I asked him for his views on the project and Brian’s possible response to it.

Roger was very enthusiastic and supportive of my project, although reserved about Brian’s possible reaction to a direct involvement, since Brian, a very modest and private person, might feel his support could be seen as ‘self idolatry’.

Whilst discussing this point, I reminded Roger of the historical fact that bronze portrait sculpture has, since the time of antiquity, been the most permanent form of art and a perfect medium for expressing the character and vitality of a family member or members, young or old, great achievers, living or dead, sports and media personalities, as well as great occasions and events.

After further discussion and thought on the matter, Roger felt that Brian might consider an involvement if we fully respected all and any of his possible concerns and ensured that any proceeds from the sale of the proposed art works went to his nominated charity, a suggestion which I immediately accepted.

Sometime later, Brian with Roger, came to my studio and sculpture garden to enable Brian to review my initial ‘The Roof Top’ project work and to discuss my detailed thoughts going forward.

I showed Brian my project work-in- progress which included maquettes, (sketch models), as well as various drawings and watercolours pertaining to the project. He also saw other finished sculptures and various images in progress plus a pictorial history of my major studio work.

Brian’s response and reaction was exciting for me; he was so positive and complimentary about my work. He liked my sculpture and my concepts but raised his strongly held personal concerns about the possible perceptions by others of him cooperating in the production of a sculpture of himself.

We embarked on a wide ranging discussion as to my art and the use of portrait sculpture, since time immemorial. We also considered the possible substantial benefits that could accrue to charity consequential to his consent and support. This latter point finally ‘unlocked the door’ when Brian agreed to a portrait sitting for me, solely on the basis that his named charity would benefit.

Brian’s decision meant that I would be able to make a positive likeness of him on the larger sculptures. In the case of maquettes, (sketch models), a rough approximation of shape and gesture is the norm, but once the more serious work of enlarging is underway, positive recognition of the person becomes a key factor.

During the portrait sitting with Brian, I had the opportunity to discuss various aspects of Brian’s life, including Brian’s astro-physics background and recent doctorate in that subject. This then lead me into dealing with Brian’s iconic head of hair, in the sculpture portrait only, in a unique format, by reference to the ‘cosmos’.

I have now commenced to put into sculpture form, in all its size stages, including the largest accepted size, Heroic, Brian May, this tall iconic musician and guitarist, with his mass of curly, flowing hair, dressed in equally flowing jacket and trousers, playing on top of Buckingham Palace, the National Anthem, in the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11, as well as a vast crowd in The Mall and a TV audience of millions around the world in June, 2002.

Now all that remains is for generous benefactors to provide fitting homes for the sculptures and a suitable site for the heroic sculpture, all for the benefit of Brian’s named charity.

June 2009

Description of the terms used in this site

The Sculpture:

For those that are new to the processes of sculpture here is a brief explanation that might help to appreciate this how this project has progressed.

The initial idea for a sculpture maybe explored first by drawing making quickly many different images. These help to establish the proposed subject in the mind of the artist with as much information as possible to proceed to the next stage which is that of making three dimensional sketch models probably using wax or clay; these are known as ‘maquettes’ and can range in size from a few centimetre to 2 - 10ins high (50 – 250mm) with more elaborate versions being as large as 22ins high (550mm). In the main the maquettes are small sculptures that are rough approximations only and used as aids to thinking in the round. Once the image has been decided upon the full size sculpture will be made the actual size of which may have been prompted by a specific site for the work or simply at the whim of the sculptor who might prefer to work at a particular scale when not working on a commissioned sculpture.

The term ‘working model’ features here too and the difference between this and the maquette is the attention to the chosen pose and action plus all detail, including likeness to the subject, which in the maquette is only summary. The working model is usually made at half to two thirds the size of the projected sculpture so can be anything from three to ten feet or more (approximately 1 -3 metres). The sculptor will simply scale up from this working model accurately reproducing each detail at the chosen size. If the final work is be of an ‘heroic’ scale (anything over life size) the sculptor might employ assistants or an enlarging specialist both of whom will work dependant on the ‘working model’.

Portrait sculpture is a very interesting side of a sculptor’s repertoire requiring the resolved image to be an accurate rendition of the subject but also the artist’s interpretation of the model, the head of Brian reflects my feelings about him, his personality and idiosyncrasies; all the information I required was gathered by working directly in the clay at life size with Brian present in my studio.

Prints: - are artist’s reproductions of drawn or painted images resolved using any of the traditional fine art printing media and techniques. In this project the first resolved print is the ‘lithograph’ portrait of Brian May that I made basing it on the portrait sculpture I had made previously, it in an edition of 100 and signed by both Brian and me. My intention is to make more prints in other fine art print media. Drawings and paintings pertaining to both the prints and the sculptures are all part of the working process and therefore part of the project.