18 Fig Tree

Fig tree 2019
Bronze h44 x w43 x d29 cm

There’s a very large fig tree just by the entrance to Butley Mills Studios.  It has the most beautiful leaves.  They start perfectly formed and small, then they spread out, with their long stalks and curved sections, each clearly marked with a prominent central vein.  From a bronze caster’s perspective, they’re sturdy and therefore ideal to burn out.

These fantastic natural shapes allowed me to play with lines and curves on the surface of the head-shaped central core.  I made a base layering of the leaves onto the face first, then began to think more carefully about where the next should be placed.  The ring of stalks, which form a crown at the top of the head, were a good starting point.  I used smaller leaves for the eyes, turned to show the underside veining – perfect as a line guide.  The following leaf placement then aligned with these first veins to create patterns which meander over the entire face.  I turned the leaves to show the upper surfaces when I felt this worked better, or randomly topped a large leaf with a small one, not always lining them up

The head was finished with a branch holding fruit.  I’ve always thought of figs as very voluptuous with their rounded shape and delicious pink interior, a sign of fertility perhaps.  In Frida Kahlo’s still-life paintings of fruit, she used them as symbols for the cycle of life.  Cut in half, they’re shown as over-ripe or beginning to wither.