To Seaside

A stroll in the Australian Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Melbourne . Part 3/3.

Wandering north by east we pass a sculptured rockpool waterway, to landscapes characterised by ponds and rivers, home to water birds like the not so common Eurasian Coot.  These waters are rimmed by contrasting arid landscapes dominated by tough Mallee flora over the rise called Howson Hill, festooned with flowers busily attended by all manner of insect pollinators. Strolling on to the northwest, the gardens transform into dry, sandy, coastal environs where only hardy bushes like Melaleuca bent by salt winds, tough little succulents and tiny flowers of bizarre structure like Goodenia survive. Here the iconic symbol of these three Australian Botanic Garden series, Xerochrysum brachiatum - the Paper Daisies - hold their ground around Seaside.

Silver Medal, International Competition for Professional Artists, Mondial Art Academia, France 2019

Second Prize, Botanicals Exhibition, The ArtRoom Contemporary Gallery, USA 2019

Sculptured from Hahnemuhle (Germany) 300gsm cotton NOT, Arches (France) 310gsm cotton hot-pressed mould made papers and a variety of handmade Hemp, Flax and Kozo (Mulberry) papers from Awagami (Japan) and other Asian sources, some as light as 4gsm. Background single colour ink wash.

About Ray Besserdin

32-year career recognized with over 30 local and international awards. Works hang in private and corporate collections in London, Munich, Manhattan, Tokyo, New Zealand and throughout Australia. Entirely self-taught techniques of sculpting dimensionally using only sheet-formed papers creating works that are much like bas-relief. Ray's palette of papers are mostly mould-made cottons and a wide variety of mulberry, hemp and flax fibred stocks from Europe and Asia. The extreme beauty of the papers is best appreciated when viewing the originals where the delicate translucence of some of the papers can truly be seen, some of which are a mere 4gsm.  The largest works astound viewers for their rigidity, while all made from paper.  Sculptures range from miniature to free-standing pieces over 6 by 3.8 metres. Ray's styles can be abstract to figurative ultra-realism though he calls his signature style “Impressionist Sculptured Paper” for its use of torn, raw pieces arranged to form the subject matter.  While likeness is important, the focus is to capture emotion, life and expression over realism yet always revealing the character of the papers from which the subjects are sculptured. Nature is his favourite subject matter. Most works will take between 3-6 weeks to complete, are extremely archival and guaranteed to last many generations.  

https://papersculptureartist.com/