Visiting William
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"In 2005 William Eicholtz was awarded Australia’s national sculpture prize, the prestigious Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award for his work The Comrade's Reward, a work in the form of a traditional allegorical garden sculpture".
One of the most creative and technically brilliant sculptors in Australia, William Eicholtz, works from his studio nearby to Creative cowboy films’ base in Melbourne, we visit William’s studio to view a new body of work.
It was a few years ago that we worked with William as we followed the artist making the large public sculpture, Courage, which had been commissioned by a local government in inner Melbourne. This was a complex journey involving other people. You will see William working on the sculpture in the film on the landing page at the front of the Creative cowboy films website.
Courage is a bronze sculpture made by using the ancient technique of lost wax casting. The bronze casting techniques used to create Courage were similar to those used by the great sculptors in ancient Greece.
Each step in this process is complex and needs a highly skilled team to complete each stage. It is William’s task to create the original clay sculpture, the scale of the work makes us wonder how William can be so confident, even if it is built on a frame structure, that the larger than life clay figure will not crack and break into pieces. During this sculpting phase, each evening the clay figure was dampened down and wrapped in cloth, so that the clay would not dry out.
“No sculptor works totally alone to produce a large public work and I have the privilege to work with team from J K Fasham who are sculpture fabricators and installers. Like the Perrin Foundry, Fasham are a family business with a genuine love of fine art and helping artists. The generations of knowledge and skill these businesses contribute are invaluable to an artist as they share their technologies to help an artist create their vision. Together we did a lot of designing and thinking to make my ‘yellow brick road’ plinth a reality. The formwork in the little light wells, let alone the internal channels for electric wiring, was a feat of engineering in itself”.
Then, after the clay sculpture had been completed the Perrin Sculpture Foundry team take over the technical processes and William works with them to make any adjustments and minor surface repairs to the sculpture. There is close liaison between the team during the final assembly stage.
It was a few years ago that we worked with William as we followed the artist making the large public sculpture, Courage, which had been commissioned by a local government in inner Melbourne. This was a complex journey involving other people. You will see William working on the sculpture in the film on the landing page at the front of the Creative cowboy films website.
Courage is a bronze sculpture made by using the ancient technique of lost wax casting. The bronze casting techniques used to create Courage were similar to those used by the great sculptors in ancient Greece.
Each step in this process is complex and needs a highly skilled team to complete each stage. It is William’s task to create the original clay sculpture, the scale of the work makes us wonder how William can be so confident, even if it is built on a frame structure, that the larger than life clay figure will not crack and break into pieces. During this sculpting phase, each evening the clay figure was dampened down and wrapped in cloth, so that the clay would not dry out.
“No sculptor works totally alone to produce a large public work and I have the privilege to work with team from J K Fasham who are sculpture fabricators and installers. Like the Perrin Foundry, Fasham are a family business with a genuine love of fine art and helping artists. The generations of knowledge and skill these businesses contribute are invaluable to an artist as they share their technologies to help an artist create their vision. Together we did a lot of designing and thinking to make my ‘yellow brick road’ plinth a reality. The formwork in the little light wells, let alone the internal channels for electric wiring, was a feat of engineering in itself”.
Then, after the clay sculpture had been completed the Perrin Sculpture Foundry team take over the technical processes and William works with them to make any adjustments and minor surface repairs to the sculpture. There is close liaison between the team during the final assembly stage.
New work
In his studio William now has access to a potter’s kiln and this has provided an opportunity for William to use a less complicated path to create some new works entirely by himself through each process.
Modelling clay for major sculptural works has always been at the centre of what William has been doing.
Now at smaller scale the works in clay can be fired and glazed and fired again in the studio. The result, the finished works.
This new art journey for William creates a range of possibilities. The new work is already in high demand. We can see why.
New work
In his studio William now has access to a potter’s kiln and this has provided an opportunity for William to use a less complicated path to create some new works entirely by himself through each process.
Modelling clay for major sculptural works has always been at the centre of what William has been doing.
Now at smaller scale the works in clay can be fired and glazed and fired again in the studio. The result, the finished works.
This new art journey for William creates a range of possibilities. The new work is already in high demand. We can see why.
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