"Awakening", aluminum 17 7/8"x 13 7/8"
Grace in Motion I, aluminum 21 3/4" x 15 3/4"
Rain, aluminum 19 1/2" x 8 1/2"
Summer, aluminum 12 1/4" x 6 3/4"
The first four relief sculptures that I had cast in aluminum are "Awakening", "Grace in Motion I", "Rain", and "Summer". They were all cast at MADD castings just south of Loveland in Berthoud and I was pleasantly surprised and happy that they came out so well. Debbie Bakel did the patinas on these and I was also pleased that the patina process is very similar to a bronze patina. Debbie did a great job! There are some minor differences between aluminum and bronze patina. Aluminum, for example, heats up much faster than does bronze. This is important to know because it means that you can burn a patina much faster so care needs to be taken. Being more familiar with bronze I have to be careful when doing the patinas myself that I do not get the aluminum too hot.
As I had posted some time ago these aluminum castings were also a test of the art buying market. To see if people would like them and, if so, would people buy them? Would aluminum be appealing to prospective buyers or would people shy away from it? Were they curious what the castings were made of or would they assume it was bronze? Aluminum is a relatively new-comer to the field of casting, one of the very first sculptures to be cast was in 1893. Anna Hyatt Huntington later experimented with casting aluminum and her sculpture "Fighting Stallions" at Brookgreen Garden is one of the largest. With this short history I wasn't sure how potential collectors would react. To my surprise, it was good! I sold two of the four castings at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational (Awakening and Summer). Many times, people would walk right past my sculptures to look at the reliefs. With this assurance I now have about 6 new reliefs going through the foundry being cast in aluminum. I will post them as they are finished.
