Man's Best Friend

Not for nothing have dogs been given this adoring epithet. They have been sitting loyally by the side of humans for centuries, satisfying the intimate space of platonic touch (a longing remembered from childhood). The feeling of closeness and unconditional presence that only a dog can occupy has led so many people to create lasting memorials for their faithful hounds.  

Without thinking about it, you will have stroked many dogs in your life. It is the first reaction when a dog approaches; the unspoken language between humans and animals. It was this automatic action that was invaluable when creating the pose for the model of this piece.

Using clay to remember the feel of a dog's form beneath your hands proved to be more useful than looking; in this instance, the likeness came afterward. 

Replicating Colour in Stone

Creating a likeness of a dog is as complex as creating a likeness of a person; every dog has its own characteristics, and often there aren't many photos of the dog from different angles on which to base the sculpture.

It is a tricky challenge, especially when one of the obvious defining features of a dog are its markings. How do you represent that in clay and then stone?  

The only real way is to create a sense of light and dark through texture, but not enough to confuse the overall form. The other difficulty is that you might resolve a challenge such as this in clay and then find that when you come to carve it in stone, it doesn’t translate, as the stone is often a light colour in comparison to the dark grey/brown of the clay, and then you have to resolve the problem all over again, afresh. 

Although the challenge of tonal pattern was there, alongside the task of using carving styles to make a notoriously cold material look soft, warm, and fluffy, by far the biggest challenge of this memorial was not getting lost in the curls. ……You start on one curl, look at the model for a moment, and can’t find where you were when you go back to continue. It was the ultimate test of patience as well as skill, as the curls can't be carved without thought; they are artfully used to describe the anatomy that is hidden beneath .