few
years ago I did a series of six pen and ink drawings depicting Colonial
life in New Zealand at the turn of last century. One of these studies
was of an old time gold panner. I knew at the time this was an ideal
subject for a bronze sculpture.
To do the photography and research for the original drawing I travelled
to Alexandra, in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand.
There I met Bill Tinker who was perfect as my model for the assignment.
Bill had himself been working a claim up until a few months before I met
him. He was a real cowboy and mentioned the type of work he had done
like hanging from a rope beneath a helicopter to tend a buoy in the
middle of one of the Sounds. One of his photos he proudly showed me was
of his digger upended over the edge of the pit of his claim where he had
pushed it's limits just a bit too far. Bill, by now in his sixties, was
running the local Youth Hostel as well as a jet boat tourist service to
visit some of the old gold digging sites. We spent a day or so looking
around as well as borrowing some "authentic" garb from the local amateur
theatre to make him look the part.
The shots we took the next day on the banks of the Clutha River. Bill
actually found a small vein of gold bearing black sand only a few feet
back from the water, and while I stood on a tiny rock only inches above
two hundred tons per minute of fast flowing river to do the shoot, Bill
on the edge of the river in a quiet little spot, actually panned a few
grains of gold. That same spot is now submerged beneath the waters of
Lake Dunstan, newly formed by the Clyde Dam.
These photos were taken from the one angle as intended for the drawing,
so when it came time to do the sculpture, a few years later, I enlisted
the help of another friend, Boud Van Den Bemd, for the shots that would
give me all the angles I needed. Boud, a farrier who works with
Clydesdales, had a similar lean physique to Bill, and so once again was
ideal for the purpose.
With all the material for the study gathered, I then spent several
hundred hours creating the sculpture in black wax over a wire frame.
At the foundry where the bronzes are cast, four moulds are employed to
produce the one finished piece, for each of the 100 castings in the
edition. They are: one for the figure, one for the rocks, one for the
pan, and even one for the laces hanging from the panner's right boot.
Have a look at my bronze of the Striped Marlin on this site for some
background on the process each bronze goes through.
For further information or to order one of the edition please contact me
as below. If you live in greater Auckland or will be passing through and
would like to arrange to view one of the edition, please e-mail me as
below also.
Dimensions: 240mm x
280mm x 300mm high
( 9 1/2in x 11in x 11 3/4 in high )
Edition Limited to 100 numbered and signed castings.
Price:$3750.00
