Tag Archives: sculpture

Painter

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If you’re about ready for a little break from all things Maya, here’s a shot from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science — it’s of a miniature carving (roughly 10″ tall) by Vasily Konovalenko titled “Painter:”

Painter

If you’re wondering why miniature sculpture is in a natural history museum, it’s because Konovalenko’s carvings are entirely made from gemstones. Here’s this little guy’s bill of materials from the placard:

Shoes: black jasper

Pants: jasper

Shirt: lapis

Apron: white jasper

Hat: jasper

Face & Hands: jasper

Eyes: sapphire

Floor: agate

Bucket: petrified wood, cacholong

Brush: agate, amethyst quartz

Great Expectations

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One of the best parts of living in Colorado is that we can get up to some… interesting… mountain events over the course of the year. This was a Canadian entry at the 2012 Breckenridge snow sculpture contest:

Great Expectations

I’m always amazed at just how much detail the sculptors can coax out of packed snow (OK, in this case with a bit of help from some icicles).

Great Expectations details 1

And of course, you have to look carefully to spot all the goodies they’ve packed into their work.

Great Expectations details 2

Stuccoed

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A bit of ancient royal propaganda on the north face of the Palace at the ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico:

Stuccoed

This stucco is a bit tricky to get a good image of — you can’t get near it (for its own sake), and other parts of the structure it’s on block your view from ground level. So you need to work from a distance with a long lens.

I used Topaz Adjust to bring out the colors and structure a bit in this shot.

Angels in the Stucco

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Stucco decorations on the face of the Acropolis at the Maya ruins of Ek’ Balam:

Angels in the Stucco

This stucco is in fantastic shape for its age — in no small part thanks to the fact that it was buried inside the Acropolis pyramid not long after it was built. It’s a tricky photographic subject thanks to the protective thatched roof overhead (the light’s even, but low, all day long), but it’s worth it to preserve this amazing work.

Kinichná in Becán

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The old Maya ruins of Becán in México have quite a few things to recommend them. A number of structures have been restored, and are open to public viewing; several structures are both climbable and riddled with passageways (so many places to explore).

But really, the marquis attraction is this stucco figure of the Maya sun god Kinichná:

Kinichná in Becán

Since the stucco needs to be protected from the hot and humid environment (as well as from vandals), it’s in a purpose-built enclosure with a glass front. But the lighting’s tricky (no artificial light in the enclosure), and the glass is both dirty and scratched (take wet wipes and a paper towel) — so you have to work to get a decent shot of this bit of artwork…