We visited the Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor yesterday, as part of my birthday trip up the coast. It is a small museum, but one dedicated entirely to bird carving. I get a lot of inspiration, and even some carving tips, by examining the carvings they have on display there. There were three osprey carvings, two by Wendell Gilley himself and another by a carver whose name I forget. I took photos of them for my reference file, and the three carvings are shown in the images below.
The poses are all very similar, with the bird perched on a limb or piece of driftwood, with wings spread as if taking off or just landing. The bottom carving is life-size, and is all the more impressive because of that. None of them have the level of feather detail that I am adding to my carving. My pose is different, an “attack” pose with the wings partially folded as the osprey zeroes in on his prey fish. Still not sure about the base yet. I will have to experiment tomorrow.
I will return to my osprey carving with renewed determination to do my best at representing a dramatic moment during an osprey attack dive!
I like your attack approach much better, more movement etc
ReplyDelete