Latest Alabaster sculpture – Ria

Ria refers to a long narrow inlet of the sea formed by flooding of an unglaciated river valley.   Since there are some exquisite patterns resembling rivers and contour lines on this piece of alabaster it felt apt to name this sculpture Ria.

Originally, I envisioned sculpting a torso. The stone had other ideas however — where the top part of the torso was supposed to be located the grey and white alabaster was so intertwined that even the gentlest of taps with the chisel resulted in the stone ‘popping’  – ‘popping’ is as the name implies, chunks of stone are released from the sculpture requiring me to rework the remaining stone back into the intended shape, ultimately leaving less and less stone to work with.  After struggling with these ‘pops’ 4 or 5 times I decided that the stone was not interested in my vision.  I removed the top part of the torso and the result is a happy sculptor and a happy stone.

Ria – Alabaster – 16” x 9” x 5”

Ria getting used to being on show!