Bus sketch'es 1.2.3.4.5.

[D Akey]

Wow, look at that great shine to the stand what's raising her bust. I can see you took a shine to her nibs.

Love her expression. Hahaha. It's as if she's saying to ya about losing that big fish, "Yeah, sure Mr Ploos. . . the one what got away was so much more the trophy."

Anyway, Paint on MacDuff!

PoseDrawSki, y ¡Vaya con world class busts!

[eighty+]

Yep It is I Awake from 12 hours Slumber and ready to do battle with my Cornflakes and Banana Capt'n Mac as for that Stand or plinth

or whatever U want to call it I was in despair with it a sort of mustard Yellow I had almost given up on it when adding some Red and Highligts turned it

into a thing of Beauty CIAO IVAYA CON DIOS HASTA LA VISTA SLAINTE ..............IVAYA CON POZDRAWSKI

[Caesar]

Hi Caesar.

Good sculptures and I would be in heaven wandering those sculptures. Still blows my mind how people can shape something as lacking of movement as stone and make it appear so supple and vital. But, as Mr Ploos "bashes" the sculpture, he'll never destroy a one since he means he's sketching them as opposed to taking a sledge hammer to them like that maniac who damaged Michelangelo's Pieta some decades back. (In case it doesn't translate, "bash it out" is a British idiom or slang meaning to do (whatever) quick and dirty. In American we might say "knock it out". Sometimes the nonchalance of that saying belies there could be real quality to the piece like when you see a masterwork and the artist says "Nothing to it". I would imagine that Italian has similar sayings?)

Of the eras of sculpture I have to favor the later ones from Michelangelo, Bernini and on up into the 19th century. The real old stuff was great as a starting point but it developed. Then of course there was the sensuality of the Indian (country) sculpture with its stylization of vitality -- from the people who brought us the Kama Sutra. What's not to love. Anyway, no end to those highways and byways for the Ploos Boos.

Dear DAkey, maybe they're less useful to our McPloos, but sculptor didn't disappear here in Italy after Bernini, on the contrary. Just to give You an idea of some of them from the impressionist age up to after WWII, few decades ago, here's a sample, among them a Boccioni, a Modigliani, a Fontana etc. ... surprising artpieces as much as too many other from a couple of millennia and various civilizations up to these days which You may find in many specific or local musei or abroad in private collections or public places.

[Caesar]

Some more ....

[eighty+]

Hail O Caesar O Mighty One Yes But Not Bernini's As he was a Genius when U think The one of the old fellow grabing the Bird it was Finished befor

He was 21 just Fantastic in anybody's Book ok CIAO STATTE BBUONO Si Si IVAYA CON DIOS SLAINTE .............POZDRAWSKI

[eighty+]

Hi A quick Smash the Bloke with the Arrows ok CIAO IVAYA CON DIOS HASTA LA VISTA SLAINTE ................POZDRAWSKI

[D Akey]

Caesar, your latest offerings would definitely be more challenging to draw and it would be almost more about the surface texture than the form for someone sketching from them. I'm well aware the Italians didn't stop sculpting after Bernini, nor did they stop painting after Titian, or composing after Rossini. But you have to admit, these icons cast a long shadow that's not so easy for contemporary Italians to get out from under to make their own mark. But I digress. I'm always appreciative how you champion the Italian culture, much of which I would not be aware of otherwise.

I can only speak of my limited, though profound experiences. I think the rarity of seeing things on singular vacations makes them all the more exciting because I go looking for such experiences. And I find them without fail.

But you're right, Mr Ploos has been working with realism for some time, and I was just recollecting the strong appreciation I have for the works he's chosen to draw. And I will hold the ones I mentioned above the other artists because I was totally blown away by the quality and classical aesthetics when I saw them.

The ones you last pointed out are great for their contributions to art history, no doubt, but I appreciate them for other, perhaps more intellectual reasons. The classically done, finely crafted stuff hits me in a very visceral way that these others don't. But that's just me. I love the later stuff too. But it activates a different part of me.

Always fascinating getting your perspective on things, Caesar. The forum is definitely a different place when you're off on vacation.

[D Akey]

Mr Ploos, if the subject of an old sculpture or painting shows a guy strapped to a Roman column and pin-cushioned by arrows, it's almost always St Sebastian. He seems consigned to that fate time after time after time. Sort of like Promethius who brought humans fire in Greek mythology, who would daily get his liver re-eaten by an eagle. Pissed off Zeus, and that's never a good idea.

And here he is now, for your dining pleasure, three shows nightly, direct from Mount Olympus and Wikipedia. . .the creator of mankind. . . ProMETHIUS!

PoseDrawSki! y ¡Vaya con liver and onions!

[eighty+]

Hi Capt' Mac >>>>>>>> Hael O Caesar O Mighty One The Crowds are gathering I can hear the excitement and the Distant sounds of A Fight

Ok ( Gentilmen ) and others Chose your weapons Pistols....Rapiers....Cutlass.....Hatchets.....kni ves....Clubs...Fistacuffs start at twenty paces if

pistols otherwise 4 paces apart behind the old Cowshed winner takes a Statue that he can carry the loser takes one that he can carry in one hand

OK lets get cracking as the crowd is going Bonkers ok first Blood is the Winner

Ciao IVAYA CON DIOS SLAINTE ..................IVAYA No Kicking .............POZDRAWSKI

The LAST Statue ask Caesar who its by ok AS I Havn't A Clue

[Caesar]

I must say that as a sculptor-painter You are fantastic almost as Bernini, dear ATPlus! He was great since 21, You still are past 85 and learning very late and by Yourself!

Dear DAkey, I only had the pleasure to assist to many sudden or unexpected discoveries and re-evaluations of several artists who became obscured in certain periods or just by being in the wrong place at a certain time. Just consider the great Japanese masters discovered by western art in the second half of the XIX century.
In the XX century, just to avoid too recent times when all is far from settling, economical and market power, elitarian or powerful circles, political and ideological factors, psychology, areas and boundaries etc. in an exponentially grown offer and, often, in a wide or vague definition of what art was and made of, influenced very much the critics and the rankings creating some absolute superstar and some fades. Just think that, as far as I learned, if I understood it, Singer Sargent (a painter I absolutely love) is today at far lower prices than at its martket acme.
Nonetheless sculptor like Paolo Troubetzkoy, Vincenzo Gemito, Medardo Rosso in the impressionist age, later XIX, Amedeo Modigliani across the XIX and XX, Lucio Fontana, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Manzù, Pietro Cascella, Arnaldo Pomodoro in the XX century, all highly famed artists, would have collected an even far greater fame somewhere else. I already showed You the same phenomen for painters who, in some case grew very much in interest and fame also abroad and were hardly know and with little or no international resonance.
Having said that no issue for me to celabrate as absolute masters and top class sculptor people like Auguste Rodin or Henry Moore. I'm sure there are many other outside my national boundaries I would love and who are somehow put aside by the official critics gotha. Quality, quantity, price and fame are sometimes not necessarily highly correlated aleatory variables alas, although places with more economical power are often where art is more appreciated, supported and marketed.

As for the names i made, I would provide You with their images and some of them would inspire wonderful paintings as well to our dear McPloos I hope:
https://www.google.it/search?q=lucio...lo+troubetzkoy
https://www.google.it/search?q=lucio...incenzo+gemito
https://www.google.it/search?q=medar...qkDQAQ_AUIBygB
https://www.google.it/search?q=lucio...liani+sculture
https://www.google.it/search?q=medar...=lucio+fontana
https://www.google.it/search?q=bocci...HTOIB80QsAQIGw
https://www.google.it/search?q=medar...h&q=manz%C3%B9
https://www.google.it/search?q=medar...ietro+cascella
https://www.google.it/search?q=medar...naldo+pomodoro