Medieaval Style Capitals; Menton, France

MEDIEAVAL STYLE CAPITALS; MENTON, FRANCE
Category: Current and Recent Projects / Stonecarving : New work
Date: 2022
Material: Bath stone

This project was  to design and carve a series of 26  Romanesque inspired capitals for a new-build project in the south of France. Each design is unique, although inspired by Romanesque examples, and responding to detailed input from the client. Half the work was produced as an extra curricular project by stonecarving students from the City and Guilds Art School in 2019, but the pandemic of 2020 meant that the remainder had to be completed in my workshop by myself and colleague John Shield, and these are illustrated here. The design process for each capital involved the creation of a number of quick pencil sketches for review and comment, followed by the production of a rapid small scale clay model  before completing the carving in stone . In this way we could respond to the clients’ input before making any irreversible design decisions that carving direct from the drawings would entail.