Clay Head

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Abstract head in progress using air-dry clay. Sketchbook drawings with hopeful notes about executing them in wood and/or stone.

Carving Heads This Morning

It’s sorta cold outside this morning. Started carving a couple of heads in basswood. No plan really,

just kinda whittling away.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

The morning sun shines right on my small woodworking bench, which feels lovely this morning.

If it’s in my studio and it’s sharp, it’ll have been made by FLEXCUT, MORAKNIV, PFEIL, GRANDFORS BRUKS, or LIE-NIELSEN.

Corgis: New Addition

This is Rose. She is a Fluffy Welsh Corgi and will be starting as a studio assistant here in December. 

Current studio assistants Jyn, Sabine, and Snap are looking forward to welcoming

the newest member of the Corgi Squadron to the team.

Sketchbook to Project III

The diptych “Tumescent Neolithic Coupling” came from reflecting about my earlier painting  “Tumescent Neolithic Pre-Funk” (See the 25 Oct 2015 post on this blog).

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

It’s fun to go back and see how the project changes from those first thoughts to the finished project.

Garden Sketch and a Portrait

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Pencil and watercolor sketch of fall remnants in BK’s garden on mixed media board and a portrait in progress  in pencil and watercolor on mixed media board.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Sketchbook to Project II

Again, very simple sketches can sometimes lead to fun results.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

I like to go through my diaries and sketchbooks when I’m looking for new projects. I’ll often find some idea I’d passed on or was forgotten. Sometimes an idea needs to show up a few times in different books before I attempt to execute it.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

These are projects that have been posted previously, but I hoped getting a peek into the process might be interesting.

Sketchbook to Project I

A few marks in a notebook can become an hour or many months of work and play. These are ideas quickly

captured in pen in my Moleskine Yearly (Weekly) Diary.

I use “captured” deliberately, as ideas not caged quickly often run off.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Hatching a Beetle

My projects generally start in my notebook or sketch books, and then grow or dwindle from there.

In future posts, I’ll show some examples.

My favorite beetles are the Clown Beetles of the family Histeridae. I had previously done a block print of a Hister beetle, and thought it might be a good subject for a back-on-black painting. Below is the lino block and print, and my Moleskine opened to the page where I sketched my thoughts on the project. Often my first thoughts go in my little Moleskine notebook, and then get expanded in a sketch book. My sketch books are Moleskine Watercolour notebooks and albums of various sizes.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

 This is the painting in progress today.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Saturday Night Blackout

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Started a new painting tonight. Thanks for the perfect background Stuart Semple!

Semple’s Black 2.0.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Corgi Friends

Corgi Squadron likes to hang out with me in the outdoor sculpting studio. They especially like to chew on the wood chips and bark that accumulates. When I’m sculpting stone they sometimes like to carry around stone debris. Gotta watch that! They are also concerned with Operational Security and like to monitor any crow or jay fly-overs.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

Tools: Planes

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

I grew-up in Minnesota, mostly in the 70’s, around folks who did a fair amount of woodworking.

Sometimes I wish I had taken the opportunity to learn more about woodworking back then. I could get a new can of Snus real fast, and I could figure out which fridge had the cold cans of Oly, but I wasn’t much more useful than that. Most of what I learned

about woodworking came from books and from casual observation as a child. I recently was thinking about how much the fellas used their old Stanley block planes. They had the “pocket” sized planes around and made good use of them- including as a shaping tool. I remembered this a while back and acquired a tiny inexpensive Kunz pocket plane to have around the studio. I have found it very helpful for small wood carving and other tasks.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

I have started carving /sculpting larger stock, and in trying to shape the these larger pieces I found myself wanting for a tool that could do gradual shaping of flat surfaces. The small plane came to mind, and I started looking at the woodworking tool stores for ideas.
On the LIE-NIELSEN TOOL WORKS site I found their No 40 1/2 SCRUB PLANE.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson.

The scrub plane is a sculptor’s dream at shaping wood. And not just for working flat surfaces. The scrub plane does great work on curves as well. I love schwacking out big hunks of wood, but sometimes a more measured approach is called for and this is the tool for those times.

I love shaping with the No 40 1/2 scrub plane so much that I’m saving-up to get a LIE-NIELSON 

60 1/2 BLOCK PLANE and the extra toothed blade.

Product idea for LIE-NIELSON: do a second version of the Scrub Plane and 60 1/2 Block Plane, make the tools Emo black, and call them the 40 1/2 and 60 1/2 Sculptor’s Planes.

Tools: Big Ass Chisel

I love to shape wood with an axe, but my joints don’t love it at all anymore. I got it in my mind that
a big ass chisel would be just the right alternative tool for the task. After searching casually for some months I fell deeply, perhaps unnaturally, in love with the PFEIL 80mm DRAYER GOUGE.
Much internetting was done. No go. The usual internet stockists (Woodcraft, et al.) failed me.
Enter WOODWORKERSPECIALTIES  of Coquitlam, BC. Apparently he’s got “a guy”, a Swiss guy
who is his Pfeil rep and my dream tool is now in rotation out back. I LOVE IT. I’m a little sad at having to limit my axe work, but the Drayer / mallet combo is excellent.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson
Pfeil 80mm Drayer Gouge and Wood Is Good Co. mallet combo.
Atelier Luteiventris En Plein Air.

Today I’m...

...mostly reading. I started a plaster sculpture base for a cool piece of wood I found on a walk in Vancouver,WA. I also worked a little on the Basswood  Oseberg Viking.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson

 I’ll use Sculpt Nouveau’s primer, Metal Coat and Patina on the Sculptamold and Hydrocal.

©️2019 Montgomery J Nelson