An opportunity to carve stone in Italy

Carrara marble quarry (Image: Reiner Flassig. Wikipedia)

It has been a dream for quite a while, to go to Carrara in Italy, to those fabulous mountains of marble, where Michelangelo selected the stone for the carving of such wonders as his ‘David’. (Florence)

And now the dream will become reality. I will spend the month of May at Studio Sem (www.studio-sem.com) in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, Italy, carving Carrara marble.

A small work created before I go, using some local veined marble . . . I am playing with some small pieces of stone, just to see what I can come up with, playing with textures and forms.

I now have air tools, so much easier and faster than using only hand tools . . .

This journey will also be a chance to see some works in Rome and Florence which so far have only been photos in an art book – The Dying Gaul (Roman, Capitoline museum), the original David (Florence), Apollo and Daphne (Bernini, Rome). Plus, hopefully, works from the ancient Etruscan civilisation, which was pre-Roman. And of course, so much to see in the sheer rich bounty of works from Italy’s extraordinary artistic heritage.

What an opportunity!