ROCKPORT, Texas (Sept. 3, 2021) — Rockport Center for the Arts (RCA) today announced it is acquiring new work by nationally recognized figurative sculptor Kathy Wardle, the second new piece to be procured this year for RCA.
Made possible by a contribution from an anonymous donor, Beach Day is a one-of-a-kind bronze piece conceptualized by the donor, the artist and RCA with Rockport in mind. Depicting a family of five walking to the beach, the 400-pound, three-quarter life-size sculpture is scheduled to be completed December 2021 and will eventually be displayed with prominent visibility along South Austin Street, near the new $8.7 million RCA campus currently under construction in the heart of downtown Rockport.
“I attempt to depict humankind’s finest traits in my artwork,” said Wardle. “Courage, bravery, triumph, hope, kindness, joy and love are emotive themes I have tried to communicate in past works. In Beach Day, I revisit emotions that I believe are eternally important to our humanity. Beach Day shows a family filled with love and joy as they head to the beach for a wonderful day of fun and togetherness.
With a Masters in Visual Arts and vast experience studying with internationally acclaimed artists, Wardle has been teaching three-dimensional design and creating representational sculptures in bronze for four decades. The work of this Colorado-based artist is technically correct as each piece of clay is shaped and positioned to maximize her intellectual and emotional interpretation of the desired message. Wardle often finds herself marveling over the artistic act of making a lump of clay come alive, becoming intimately involved with the texture, shape, rhythm and emotion her art conveys.
“In late 2019, we started working on the concept for a representational sculpture that had a deep connection to who we are as a people in the small Coastal community of Rockport, Texas,” said Luis Purón, RCA executive director. “We interviewed a total of six artists from across the United States. We asked them to study our community and present concepts. Wardle’s Beach Day surfaced as the strongest candidate because the concept was specifically tied to our community. In November of last year, we signed an agreement with Wardle and she started work on Beach Day right away. At the end of August, we visited her at the foundry in Loveland, Colorado, where the sculpture is now ready to be cast.”
Wardle is hands-on start to finish, from the block of clay she uses to create the piece to supervising every step through the finished bronze sculpture and the patina process, so it’s only natural she would work with professionals equally dedicated to their craft in this lengthy and meticulous process.
Wardle completed the long and intricate process of clay molding the sculpture this spring. The clay sculpture was enlarged by DuChateau Sculpture Services, a professional 3-D scanning and digital resizing provider in Loveland. Using 3-D digital scanning and custom designed milling machines, DuChateau replicated the specific details of the sculpture to create the armature, a high-density foam version of the piece. Dan Ochs of Ochs Wax Pouring of Loveland then began his part of the process. Serving artists for more than 30 years, Ochs carefully separated the sculpted figures into sections and brushed on coats of rubber over the clay sculpture pieces, followed by a plaster mold. The sculpture was separated into 30 pieces. Wax was poured into the plaster molds followed by a silica sand mixture used to make ceramic shells over the wax forms as part of the “lost wax” process to be completed at the foundry.
Beach Day’s molds are now at Bronze Services of Loveland, Inc. where they are beginning the bronzing process. Known as the highest quality bronze fine art foundry in the U.S., the company utilizes top-of-the-line materials and specializes in the "lost wax" casting process, providing high-end service to acclaimed artists from around the world. Once the bronzing process is completed and the molds are removed, the 30 individual Beach Day sections will be carefully welded together and re-sculpted, using specialized tools to refine the piece to exactly match the original clay sculpture. The last step is to patina the finished five elements that comprise the sculpture.
“I like multi-colored patina in my sculptures that allows bright colors other than the traditional browns and ochres to be part of the finished look,“ Wardle said. “I think it adds visual excitement and heightened reality to my work.”
In addition to RCA’s first edition Beach Day sculpture, up to four other full-size sculptures are permitted to be cast by the artist. Including Wardle’s Beach Day, RCA’s public art program will feature a total of 17 pieces of art in its permanent collection.
The first RCA solo show for Salvador Rodriguez, celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, will be hosted in the Main Gallery. Drawing inspiration from the landscapes of the Texas Big Bend and the desert region of Texas and northern Mexico, Rodriguez conveys the sense of majesty of a panoramic view and tranquility of desert life on canvas. Each painting is a project of months or even years, beginning with a trip and study of the location, and ending in his work after adding compositions in skies, plants and rocks to give balance.
“Before creating even a plant, I like to study them and know them, including their ecosystem, as well as the history and myths of the place I am trying to capture in my works,” Rodriguez said. “So beyond trying to reproduce a photographic copy is a composition and re-creation of the essence of the place.”
Although he earned a degree in computer systems engineering, art has remained his passion. Rodriguez has worked with various mediums and techniques, including oil and watercolor, but uses acrylic on canvas most frequently since it dries quickly and allows him greater mobility. Since arriving in Austin, Texas, in 2015, Rodriguez has painted more than 36 works exhibited in various galleries and events, including both East and West Austin Studio tours.
“Epic and sublime are the best words to describe Rodriguez’s paintings,” said Elena Rodriguez, curator of exhibitions for RCA. “They convey the majesty of the West Texas region in stunning, hyperrealistic detail.”
Featured in RCA’s Galeria Dos, Ainsworth’s colorful On the Waterfront plein-air oil paintings capture the beauty and serenity of the Texas coast. A native of Wichita Falls, Texas, now living in Rockport, the artist says although most of her paintings are traditional representations, she is very comfortable with abstract, often breaking subjects into a contemporary abstract painting.
“I am inspired by painting en plein air,” Ainsworth said. “These paintings begin as abstract shapes and can be taken in many different directions. A painting starts in the artist’s brain as an emotional response to a scene or a moment. It is the artist’s goal to have the viewer of the finished work feel an excitement and an emotion.”
Painting, creating and thinking dominate Ainsworth’s life. Ainsworth began taking art courses while attending high school in Dallas, working with other student artists at the Dallas Art Museum, including some of the most prominent Texas artists of the time. After earning her science degree with a focus on geology from the University of Oklahoma, which was unusual for women at the time, and working for an oil company in Kansas, she eventually returned to Texas and revisited an old passion — oil painting.
Since 1995, she has continued to study and practice her craft, both oil and watercolor, in places such as Wichita, Kansas, and Colorado Springs, where she was part of the art community, as well as Long Island, N.Y. where she joined the prestigious Guild Hall of East Hampton. Ainsworth is a member of the Wind Way Gallery collective in Rockport, where she displays her works.
“The world seen through June Ainsworth’s eyes is one of color, shapes, and light,” said Elena Rodriguez. “The simplified forms evoke the easy-going way of life on the Texas Coast and the reason so many people fall in love with Rockport, Texas.”
