Wall Sculpture

Wall Sculpture:

What do you think of when you think of relief's or friezes..... in the art world I mean.

Sometimes it can be a bit confusing, when we are asked this question. We know these words in many ways. Yet how does it fit into art. Well relief's/friezes have been around for thousands of years. When you

think about sculpture as a dimensional form, there is also another form of sculpture that takes on a different rule in dimensions. And that is a relief or frieze.

Now to the sculptor or art student ,they already know what I am talking about. But for the un- initiated it is a form of art that is a one or two dimensional sculpture that is set on a flat surface.

I'm sure you would have come across them many a time. When you have visited the museums, art galleries. Or even gone on tour in different countries.

"The sense of motion in painting and sculpture has long been considered as one of the primary elements of the composition" - Alexander Calde

Relief Depth

Ok, I want to show you some examples of relief depth. As you can see here an ancient Egyptian relief.. The depth which I am talking about is how far the actual relief sculpture stands out from its flat surface.

Can you see that this relief is very low, and is one style of relief that has been around for thousands of years. It does not need as much work that the other form of relief's would need, though you still need to get the overall proportions and detail of wall sculpture right.

Low Relief

Here is a relief which is more dimensional in form. You can see the use of light and shadow in this wall sculpture that plays with this frieze or relief. Which gives more character and texture, just by the play of tight.

I can say that it is harder to do a relief as it gets more exposed and dimensional. You may be working with only a few dimensions. Though the rules change to what sort of relief you want to do. When tackled the first time, I can tell you it is all a bit confusing.

After sculpting normal dimensional sculptures to switching over to doing a relief, I felt constricted and was not sure where to start. Also trying to put a sculpture on a flat surface and working in one to two dimensions also was a bit of a struggle. And It was not easy. I just got on with it and learnt for myself. The key is to adjust you thinking.

I prefer this style of relief mostly to the other two. As I feel it is just enough of the subject being shown and character that is also accentuated by just enough play of light.

Medium Relief

Now here is a wall sculpture to the more extreme, I find that the detail seems to get a bit confusing on this piece.

Nether the less it is a good piece of work. The mass of the same color also can inhibit the detail showing up at its best. Loosing some of its clarity. Yet you can see how far a relief can go. It is up to the artist how far they want their subjects to come out of their flat surface. This sort of relief should be tackled most probably last, if you want to do such a height relief. Get used to the lower relief styles first. Otherwise you are liable to get frustrated and want to give it away. And we don't want that.......

High Relief

All of these relief's or friezes are a style in their own. And you can see how versatile a relief can be. It certainly is different than sculpting a full dimensional sculpture. Yet, in its own way it is a

form of wall sculpture that has its own identity. And lends itself wonderfully to wall art. You may not be using pen, pencil of paint brush.
You are sculpting instead.

I wanted to introduce you to the different sorts of relief styles that have been done thought the ages. You are not caught in one style, indeed, relief has its own variety as you can see.

And I enjoy doing this form of sculpture, namely relief's. In further discussions, I will show you some relief's that I have done and discuss with you how I went about it.

And will keep on learning........ practice, practice, practice............ So don't dismiss relief as a form of sculpture, who knows. It just might be your thing.

Lets return from Wall Sculpture to Sculpture Artists