Bella's sculpture (#1)

My dear friend Bella is a amazing sculptor who works principally in wood and alabaster. These are two of her free-standing pieces currently featured in a solo exhibition in Brussels. The small one is 48 cm in diameter and the larger one is 60 cm in diameter; both are carved from willow wood. They really are extraordinarily beautiful, so please view them large. It was my first experience photographing sculpture - not an easy thing to do using available light, as I discovered.

Bella describes her work with wood.
"As I gained confidence with wood and got to know it more, I allowed it to split, then I made features of the splitting. Now, I don't mind if my material changes. Wood is alive and one should accept that it warps. As I get to know the material I rather like working with green wood. I principally work with European woods, especially wood from my garden and surroundings, trees that haven't been especially cut for the purpose of wood sculpture (either they were ill or about to fall or already fallen) such as pear, cherry, lime, sycamore, chestnut, and poplar."

If you'd like to see more of Bella's work, go here. I hope to show you more of her work in future.

I blipped her etchings earlier this year. You'll recognise her sculptural forms in some of them.