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| Sculptor Gary DuChateau works on an equine carving, using synthetic clay, while “Mr. Cool” in the background was created with clay that is used for automobile bodies. “It has a really smooth surface, just like glass,” said the artist. DuChateau will be the featured artist in the Meet the Artist series July 10 at Pine Hills Retirement Community. Karen Yekel/Hot Springs Star |
Local sculptor at Pine Hills Thursday
HOT SPRINGS – Sculptor Gary DuChateau is this month’s featured artist in the Meet the Artist series at Pine Hills Retirement Community. The sculptor learned his craft carving wood; he has since graduated to marble and granite, as well as a stone with a story.
“It’s Italian Serpentine,” said DuChateau of the former altar stone that graced the hallowed halls of an old church in Arizona in the 1800’s. DuChateau said a developer purchased the property and hired demolition crews to pillage and blunder, smash and destroy, the heritage of a piece of history. “They pitched the five foot by eight foot, six-inch slab out the window and it shattered into pieces,” he said. “That’s what demolition crews do,” he said, sounding disgusted with the practices of many demolition contractors.
DuChateau, 57, harvested a piece of that stone and began to carve an owl from it. A bit of research later, however, lead to his discovery that the white streaks in the stone were asbestos. “I stopped working on it and resculpted it into bronze,” he said.
DuChateau gets most of his marble from Marble, Colorado, which also has a rich and diverse history. “The quarry there is the one that provided the marble for the Lincoln Memorial,” he said, and noted that all of the sculptors for the Lincoln Memorial were from Italy. “They milled the stone there (in Marble) and shipped it to Washington, D.C.,” he said.
When World War II started, the Italian sculptors were deported and the quarry closed, and remained closed for 50 years, according to the artist. DuChateau has some of the scraps that came off the building of the monument, owning a bit of history himself.
The Marble, Colo., Quarry has since reopened and is providing marble to customers all over the world, including Italy, which is the primary purchaser of foreign marble. “They mined all of their famous Carrera marble,” said DuChateau.
To carve something in stone, DuChateau said, “You start with a block of something, and your carving will always be subject to what’s inside the block.” What does he mean? It’s about inspiration, he said, and talked about a piece he designed as a “creation” piece, a pair of hands holding an embryo. After working on it for a while, being uninspired, he left it sit in his studio while working on other things. “I picked it up again and realized it did not want to be that,” he said, inspired to create an “eclipse” piece, a truly visual muse.
DuChateau said the difference between carving and modeling, using clay, is modeling builds a piece, and carving unearths the beauty in an existing piece, using the artist’s eye for form. Carving requires many different sizes of chisels and a “frosting” tool to give the stone some texture. A well-carved piece requires many different sandings as well, using from 80-grit to 3600-grit sandpaper made from actual diamonds. “It’s rather expensive and not something you’ll find at your local hardware store,” he said.
Modeling requires a different set of tools. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money on tools for modeling, he said, “A kitchen spoon can be a tool.” He uses synthetic clay, which is oil-based and stays viable for years.
DuChateau will be at Pine Hills Retirement Community on Thursday, July 10, at 7 p.m. He will be giving a carving demonstration and will have on display finished pieces as well as raw materials and tools he uses in his trade.