Showing posts with label wood carving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wood carving. Show all posts

Monday, August 27, 2012

Buddha and Krishna in a Hallway

This is an image I saved a long time ago. A wonderful spacy hallway of a huge villa or even hotel somewhere in Asia. During my travels I have seen the most beautiful and spaciest lobbies in Southeast Asia where they seem to have plenty of place although this is paradoxical in overcrowed cities such as Hongkong or other Asian metropoles. But somehow there is always money somewhere which can buy these places with spaces that cover a whole village...



There is a beautiful Buddha statue in the background and I thought I have created another beautiful sculpture that could serve as a wonderful room devider: a triptych of "Krishna and Radha" without obscuring the view towards the Buddha but what an impact this could make:



This paravent has been entirely handcarved from pinewood and then painted with a varnish that looks like old ivory. It took me 9 months to finish this work from drawing to polishing and quite some blood as a sacrifice. The chisels are very sharp! It was inspired by Indian stone sculptures and wood carving but the design is truly original.
I have added a few detail photos for you so that you can see how filigree the carving is.




"Krishna and Radha"
Indian style triptych, hand carved, massive wood, 
85" x 93" x 7", 65 kg
©Petra Voegtle












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Friday, October 1, 2010

Adult Content in the Living Room

I love this room for its simplicity. I absolutely love the floor and that it was not destroyed through paint whether it might be trendy or not. Wood can be so beautiful especially when it is old and talks of many years of usage. It can be even more beautiful when it is cared for as in this room. I also love high ceilings in old houses and I love old houses because they have character and personality. You probably have guessed so...

I also love the simplicity of the furniture that gives this room  its personal character - so if this were mine I would not have changed a single thing besides... Well, I must admit I have  certain weakness for little extras, which are not common, which can be a bit provocative so I would have chosen a different wall piece than the original one, such as this...

 original image source and with courtesy of 

The mural is a heavy, hand carved, sculptured wall piece, named Mithunas, which means "lovers" and which took me more than 6 months to finish (inspired by India's temple ornamentations in Kajuraho. This mural is however my own original design).
If you would like to see more details please check this link on my website or click on the photo below.
The mural has been treated with a varnish that is my own recipe so that it looks like old ivory. This increases the preciousness of this art piece and makes it look like an ancient carving. Finally it has been polished with beeswax that makes the wood smooth and shiny.


 "Mithunas" 
55" x 46" x 7", 70 kg
hand carved, pine
©Petra Voegtle
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Sunday, July 18, 2010

My favourite Bathroom and what I would do with it...

I am not an official interior designer and would not dare to call me so without the correct licenses but I love to look at all kinds of interior design and I love to help with advice. I am an artist and designer for all sorts of objects. So if you have a problem with placing a piece of art into an appropriate environment you can send me a photo or two. We could work this out together and I'd love to help.

I love to see what people like to surround themselves with, their different styles and tastes, their preferences for certain colours and forms. It tells you a lot about a person even if s/he did not create her/his own environment but had it designed by a professional. But I don't want to go into psychological details.

I even love to look at freaky designs and often ask myself what kind of "geek" may live in that kind of environemt. But this would be an injust and ignorant judgement. The world would be dull without these "individual" tastes. I only ask my self sometimes where does it come from, this judgement about something being freaky and outside the common rules? And who makes these rules? Is it that dreaded peer pressure (front garden syndrome), that tells you what you can do or not? Not always but often...

In many cases it is part of a certain social class that requires the individual to obey a certain kind of style, even trends no matter whether you like it or not. Sometimes people even stop asking themselves what they like or not, it becomes more important to be part of the establishment, living in the orbit of important names and becoming an important name themselves, surrounding themselves with important objects. What a shame. But I am rambling...

But despite all social dependencies there is also that special sense for harmony and beauty, the magical Golden Ratio (sectio aureo). The Golden Ratio seems to be something that is firmly fixed in our brain. That decides which face or figure is beautiful (at least the analytic psychology tells us so), automatically indicates where we feel comfortable or not.

The Golden Ratio is an important element of the Arts and Architecture and describes the perfect proportions of all elements which lead to harmony and esthetics. The Golden Ratio can be found in ubiquitous examples of nature, especially in plants.

So what has this all to do with "my" bathroom? I think it is a subliminal affinity we ( me ) have towards classical architecture of earlier epochs, where the rules of the Golden Ratio and the esthetics were pre-requisitional for any building and smaller elements.

This bathroom reminds me of smaller ancient Italian villas you can find all around the Mediterranean coast. It may be a bit farfetched but this implies for me living and enjoying life in all its facettes. It contains the smell of rosemary and lavender, cypress and pines.

This would be "my" bathroom with exactly these colours. And dreaming of a bathroom such as this one, living in the "right" environment near the sea,  I added a little sketch that might complete this room such as this with my favourite sculpture Putri Dedes, the goddess of transcendental wisdom...

click on images to enlarge
original image source "left" House Beautiful
image "right"  ©Petra Voegtle

 "Putri Dedes"
Goddess of Transcendental Wisdom
(from the Asian Wood Carving Series)
 

43" x 28" x 19" - hand carved
©Petra Voegtle
(private collection)








The sculpture has been hand carved in pine - no tropical wood. The completion took about 25 weeks and weighs 70 kg. It has been treated with an ebony-like varnish and polished with beeswax.


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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Chests are not only practical...

Chests have something practical - they can be a very useful furniture to store something and be very decorative, if not an eyecatcher at the same time.
This gilded piece here has been inspired by the amazing wood carvings in Indonesia but is nonetheless an original. It has been hand carved from renewable massive pine wood and not been carved from illegally cut tropic woods - in contrast to many imported pieces from Asia.


Javanese Chest
33" x 17" x 20", handcarved, pine, gold leaf
©Petra Voegtle









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If you would like to read more about the "making of" please see here
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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

An Asian Style Paravent with opulent Carvings

This Asian style paravent belongs to a couple of wood carvings which are opulent and a sensuous feast of forms and ornaments, something that the viewer is supposed to discover by looking at its details and touching it... (Read more about it here)

This paravent could be an excellent room devider and has therefore more to offer than just being an eyecatcher for any interior design.


Bodhisattwa
polyptych, hand carved,
77" x 69" x 10", 30 kg,
©Petra Voegtle

If you would like to see how this work could be integrated please check  interior1 and  interior2 - both showing a completely modern interior.
The following photos are detail shots of this paravent, which has been carved from solid pine and not from illegally cut tropical woods.








 




The following two photos show how the paravent looks like when it is half folded and completely folded from the back.


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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

An opulent Lady's Boudoir

This could be the lady's bedroom but it also could be a very generous guestroom for very special guests in a home where hospitality is considered an important virtue.

I love the colours and the aura of this boudoir and the original very decorative paravent that was placed in the same position of this room. But if this were my room I would add just a tiny bit more contrast and drama, a bit more material for your imagination. And what could be more appropriate than an interpretation of one of the most famous loving couple: Krishna and Radha from the Indian epic Mahabharata.

This precious paravent has been hand carved in many hours. It consists of 3 panels. It has been glazed with an ivory colour, patinated and waxed so that it looks like old ivory.

original image source from http://www.getdecorating.com

"Krishna and Radha"
Indian style triptych, hand carved, massive wood, 85" x 93" x 7", 65 kg
©Petra Voegtle





Intrigued to see more details then please check this link
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