Welcome to Part 2 of The Maiden Collection Portfolio; Series 1 of my COLLECTION SERIES Marble Sculpture Portfolio Gallery. There are 41 sculptures to view in this inaugural collection. In Part 1, I displayed each carving from ‘Genesis’, Number 1, to ‘Jonah’, Number 21. Here I will continue the review with ‘Coliseum’, Number 22, to ‘Robin’, Number 41. And as with Part 1, each carving is displayed in a small gallery along with a link to their various Web Pages here on martincooney.com, where you can discover their story, inspect their dimensions, learn their weight (because, as we all know, “weight matters” when it comes to marble sculpture) and view a large array of informative pictures showing each piece from numerous angles – often in a variety of different lighting conditions.
When it comes to my signature Curvilinear Marble Sculpture, many pieces utterly transform according to the available light. Direct light often illuminates the marble from within, which although spectacular when viewed in person, is notoriously difficult to capture on camera – although I do my best. Even a professional photographer, who took some of the photographs you are about to see, confided in me that to do justice to ‘the light effect’, the subtle hues, swathes of color and fluctuating moodiness of my COLLECTION SERIES, is tantamount to impossible. So, bear that in mind when you see the soft illumination emanating from a wafer-thin section of marble sculpture. These pieces look so, so much better in real life than they do here, or so I have been told, many, many; altogether too many, times!
~ ‘Son of a Guin’ flashes his Curvilinear translucence ~
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PART ONE: THE GALLERY
PART TWO: MY COMMENTS
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~ The Maiden Slab is Fed Into the Birdhaven Studio Workshop in Woody Creek, Colorado ~
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GALLERY
~ Please click on an image to enlarge, and click the links below each gallery to visit the sculpture’s web page ~
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~ Coliseum ~
No. 22: Coliseum, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 22, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Work in Progress ~
No. 23: Work in Progress, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 23, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Guin and Son ~
Nos. 24 & 25: Guin and Son, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 24 & 25 by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Magellan ~
No. 26: Magellan, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 22, by Martin Cooney ~
~ Please click on a picture to enlarge ~
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~ Bird’s Eye ~
No. 27: Birdseye, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 27, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ The Belle ~
No. 28: The Belle, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 28, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Sparrow ~
No. 29: Sparrow, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 29, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Long Boat ~
No. 30: Long Boat, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 30, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Four Corners ~
No. 31: Four Corners, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 31, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Mother of Pearl ~
No. 32: Mother of Pearl, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 32, by Martin Cooney ~
~ Please click on a picture to enlarge ~
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~ Pearl ~
No. 33: Pearl, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 33, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Sailboat Tempest ~
No. 34: Sailboat Tempest, Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 34, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Sugar Bowl ~
No. 35: Sugar Bowl, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 35, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Coracle ~
No. 36: Coracle, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 36, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Noah’s Ark ~
No. 37: Noah’s Ark, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 37, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Wimbledon 1973 ~
No. 38: Wimbledon 1973, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 38, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Elk Mountain Bowl ~
No. 39: Elk Mountain Bowl, Web Page Link.
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 39, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Right There! ~
No. 40: Right There! : Sold, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 40, by Martin Cooney ~
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~ Robin ~
No. 41: Robin, Gifted, Web Page Link
~ The Maiden Collection ~ Part 2 ~
~ Series 1 ~ COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE: No. 23, by Martin Cooney ~
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PART 2
COMMENTS
At the time of The Maiden Collection’s carving, certainly during the first quarter of the series, constituting the first half of Part One, I was still formulating a way forward. I had split the huge and mysterious marble slab and was now tasked with doing something with it, but what? During the first half of the first half of the carving process, I was admittedly somewhat out of my depth. Also, unwittingly, I had chosen to carve a particularly challenging seam within the block that contained a great deal of cooled magma – or granite. And although I was able to render this unforgiving mixture of marble and granite, as we call it, I eventually came to label this savage seam The Brutal Belt.
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So, I had accidently dived into the deep end, as it were. But the whole process ended up serving me well, as some of those earlier pieces will stand as testament to the rugged nature of this strange, wayward and well-travelled slab of Colorado Yule Marble. In fact, the likes of The Maiden Collection may never be repeated, by me or anyone else, unless they were to drag a similar slab out of the steep riverbank of the Crystal River (see the introduction to Part 1). There do seem to be one or two still left in place, but I imagine that sort of practice is somewhat frowned upon today. Perhaps the rodeo lot still has one or two, and there may be a couple of slabs hanging around here and there, but I doubt if a Rogue Carver like me will ever get their hands, or more importantly, their tools upon it. The Yule Marble quarry certainly doesn’t want to pass this sort of slab through their vastly expensive saws, and why should they? I don’t know what pieces like ‘Genesis’, ‘Top O’ Th’ World’ or anyone of a dozen or so Brutal Belt carvings would do to their state-of-the-art machinery, but I can imagine that it wouldn’t be too pretty.
~ The Brutal Belt’s ‘Sailboat Tempest’ Rides Out the Storm ~
But by the mid-point in The Maiden Collection, I was beginning to show progress, and several key carvings actually began to show me the way. ‘Mabel, Spirit of the Stone’ had opened the door of possibilities to a huge extent, leading me to go with the flow and not fight it. This proved to be a hugely pivotal point in my rapidly accelerating marble sculptural journey. Then ‘Adam’ came along just at the right time, to lead me into the secret world of Curvilinear Hand Carved Marble Bowls … and the rest, as they say, is history.
~ ‘Robin’ Flaunts her Plumage ~
This second half of The Maiden Slab’s carving process sees the rapid development of my signature Hand Carved Marble Bowls as I experimented with ever new and quite revolutionary sculpting techniques designed to explore the rapidly growing potential of taking out so much dead weight from a sculpture while retaining the exterior dimensions and lightening the weight to the point that it can be simply picked up and moved around – with ease. I was also developing a love of carving the bowl’s walls so thin that light penetrated and illuminated the marble in ways that I had never before encountered. And this vividly captivating element is still a strong component of my marble bowls today, as I suspect I will always be, such is the exquisite nature of light radiating through thinly sliced marble. Formerly bright white stone is immediately transformed into a vision of beautiful yellow, gold and amber hues, difficult if not impossible describe. Yes, they are bowls, and practical display vessels at that, but Fine Art Marble Sculptures are all the same. This is where form meets function and practicality rules the day.
~ ‘Magellan’, ‘The Maiden Bowl’ and ‘Noah’s Ark’, clockwise, Demonstrate an Astonishing Variety of Form ~
As with all my COLLECTION SERIES Marble Sculpture, my Mark, my signature, its serial number and usually its name, are carved and inscribed upon the underside of the base for identification purposes – not that any of these pieces could be replicated, forged or copied, given the circumstances of not only their ‘Direct Method’ carving, but also the unique nature of the marble from which they are sculpted.
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~ A few related links for your convenience ~
COLLECTION SERIES Marble Sculpture For Sale Link
COLLECTION SERIES Marble Bowls For Sale Link
About my COLLECTION SERIES Marble Sculpture Link
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The Maiden Collection Portfolio, Part 2:
COLLECTION SERIES MARBLE SCULPTURE, Series 1, by Martin Cooney
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Next up: Series 2
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Thank you for visiting martincooney.com
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