Kate French
Kate French
For the past twenty years I have lived on Tamborine Mountain, in the South East Queensland Hinterland, Australia, with its beautiful, mossy rainforests, avocado orchards, views of the ocean and its broad, breathtaking skies. Here I have raised my family, planted two foolishly dreamy gardens, collected a kaleidoscope of friends and old yellow jugs, and slowly, incrementally, I have become an artist.
The wonderful and varied characters who have come from all over the country and the world to make this place their home have been a perpetual source of inspiration. They have fuelled my fascination with people. Human emotions and quirks of personality, the huge diversity in our physical characteristics and, in particular, the way the human face can both mask and expose the story which lies beneath, are the things I seek to capture. The face is a marvel of nature.
The first medium I was drawn to was clay ceramics, focusing on figurative and portrait sculpture. Over the years, the older female has become the main subject of my sculptural practice. I love to tell a story about these archetypal characters who birth themselves in my studio. These works, inevitably, are not beautiful, in the traditional sense, but all of them celebrate what it means to be human, to be alive.
I specialize in traditional portrait bust sculptures, in both ceramic clay and cast bronze. Many of these works have been commissioned for corporate offices, and for individuals’ homes. Each year I travel nationally and internationally to teach the “Kate French Method” of ceramic clay portrait sculpture.
Kate will be holding one workshop during the festival.
Portrait in Clay (Code KF1) Intermediate
DESCRIPTION
The aim to inspire and give practical hands-on information that will help you to develop the skills for you to express yourself in this fantastic medium. Bring a photo and we will produce a likeness and have fun doing it. Eyes, Ears, Noses, NO not the Doctor, what you will learn to do to give your sculpture life!
TIME AND PLACE:
July 17 to July 21 (5 days), 8.30am to 4pm,
Studio S1, Community Arts Centre.
WORKSHOP FEE:
$375.00
ART MATERIALS LIST:
