Saturday, June 30, 2012

Impressive wooden sculptures by Rex Stewart


These excellent wooden sculptures were made by Rex Stewart.  Mr. Stewart specializes in building model boats although as you can see, he also carves realistic figures from wood for his dioramas and shadow boxes.  You can see more of his work on his Flickr site and on his blog,  Hudson River Model Steamboats.

Readers of this blog know that I have an interest in the history of whaling.   It's a brutal, but fascinating topic to study.  There is no justfication for it today, but at it's peak it provided much needed lamp oil, candles and  other products.  Fortunately the discovery and proliferation of electricity made whale oil largely obsolete.    Here are a few related postings that may be of interest: 















 The Artist at work.






Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A Cabinet Made of Wood




Here's an antique diorama of FDR's cabinet.  I do not know the source.  Looks like it is made primarily of wood.  Very nice combination of colors - yellow/mustard seems to go well with the dark wood.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

2 Ship Diorama





I found these pictures in my archive but unfortunately don't know anything about them, or where I found them.  It was probably on one of the auction sites. If you want to see more of this type of diorama, see this earlier posting:  Nautical Dioramas.
































Sunday, June 17, 2012

A follow-up to the previous cirucs diorama posting





Here's another cool circus diorama. The detail is wonderful - the figures are posed in natural positions   suggesting movement.....as if a photo was snapped as the people were entering the tent.   The artist, Christine R. Schukow uses 3D figures in conjunction with painted backgrounds.  I found these photos on artnecter.com, and more can be found on the artist's site: Christine Originals








Thursday, June 14, 2012

Fab Circus Diorama




I wish I had bid on this.  It's an electrified circus diorama with  12 Britain (toy soldier company) metal figures.   14.5" x 19" x 11".
       



Source:  liveauctions.com