Nude FS 1-26 Punt




Nude FS 1-20 Punt
 

Artist's Statement

Gordon Punt, MFA

I love many types of art and have been creating it for most of my life. After living in
Sonoma County for 24 years I moved to Ventura around 1998. I work basically in three mediums, which are; pen & ink, bronze and stone. Human faces and nudes are my main focus of interest, which I express in both classical and abstract ways. I have taught art to children and adults and involve myself in the artistic communities where I live.

For over forty years I have been drawing the human figure and continually find it challenging. Drawing from a live model is the primary method I use. Sometimes in as little as thirty seconds I try to capture the illusive movement of dance, a gesture of emotion, or a sensual moment. I have recently been enlarging the scale of my drawings to four-foot canvases, and have been experimenting with different mediums to accomplish this.


The subject matter of my early bronze figures dealt with various human conditions that I saw in the world and experienced myself. Titles such as “Frustration”, “Heartman”, “Scream”, and “Never Enough” give you an idea of what I was working with. My bronze is influenced by the work of Rodin, where detail is subservient to emotion, texture, vitality and strength. I have strong ties to classical art, yet feel the pull of modern art. My interest in the human face also led me in to making life size bronze portraits of notable individuals for Cities and Institutions. In recent years I have been working mainly with the female nude. I have incorporated a stronger and simpler element of design and celebrate the positive and negative shapes the figures make in space. The acrobatic series I am working on relates to my love of gymnastics, and is a sport I once competed in at college. I plan to keep this group in the sketch format, inspired by the small bronze ballerinas of Degas.


Working in stone and bronze is a way to attain some degree of immortality. The process of using a hammer and chisel, and chipping away at a seemingly indestructible piece of stone is also satisfying to me. I like to use two different techniques in developing stone sculptures; one is polishing the entire stone to a pristine finish, the other is to leave some of the original stone showing at it's completion. Carving marble in Italy several years ago exposed me to Michael Angelo’s series called “The Bound Slaves”. These are figures partially emerging from the stone that binds them. I have continued with that image of raw stone in combination with partially developed figures. The Kansas Fence Posts made out of limestone and standing five to six feet tall are ideal for this approach. My premise however is to express the relationship we humans still have with nature, and to celebrate the pure beauty of stone itself.




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