Sutton Betti

Modern Classical Bronze Sculpture

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#39 da Vinci relief

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Well, since I haven’t written or posted in my blog in a while I figured I’d better do it now. Much of my time has been spent dealing with a cold that has made it difficult to get any work done at the studio. I am wrapping up the sculpture Sowing the Seeds, which is a commissioned piece for a local church. I had to get an extension on this, due to the cold I had, and there are some changes to the little girl that I will be addressing over the next month. A couple of freelance projects on the side and a new commission of a life size soldier that I’ll be starting in the next week or two have kept me at the studio until late into the evening. The phrase “when it rains it pours” has significant meaning to me in the last couple of weeks racing to finish the church project and freelance work in preparation for the new commission. The good side to all of this work is I will have enough oil based clay to supply me for the rest of my life! With the free time I have (that would be Saturdays from 3-4pm), I am sculpting reliefs. These are for my own benefit and study to ease my mind from the seemingly neverending deadlines, although I am hoping to show them to some galleries once I get enough of them finished. Below is a relief of Leonardo da Vinci that I made primarily to test out different casting materials, but it turned out nice despite it’s intent. It measures 8″x6″.

#38 anatomy of the lower leg

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Ecorche’s have been used by artists for many many years. They are used in art schools and in the studios of many accomplished artists. When I was a student at the Academy of Art College (now University) I was fortunate that there was a decent collection of plaster casts of anatomical models, busts, torsos, etc. in the schools collection. The very first drawing class I had to take was a foundations class on drawing. There we studied light and shadow using primarily charcoal on 18×24″ white drawing paper and the plaster models were our subject matter. It was a great way to learn. Over the next couple of years at the Academy I became incredible fascinated by the human anatomy. 15 years later here I am with the same passion. For a long time I had wanted to sculpt an ecorche, but hadn’t taken the time to do it. With limited time for doing anything anymore this morning I decided I’ll never find the time so I have to make the time. And that is what I did. The anatomical leg measures about 9.5″ tall including the base and I used a harder clay to allow for more detail. Although it is a work in progress, you can see much of the anatomy is clearly defined. The soleus and gastrocnemius, the tibialis anterior and peroneous longus. Once I finish this I will make a urethane mold in order to cast a harder material, such as resin, forton or plaster. I hope to refine that casting a little further (that the clay won’t allow me to do) and then make another mold, this time a silicone mold, and offer castings for sale. Hopefully someone can use this the same way I used the anatomical models back in school.
Anatomy of lower leg (w.i.p.), approximately 9.5″ tall by Sutton Betti


#37 fluidity and flow

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After a request to email alternate views of two of my sculptures earlier today, I decided to post them on here. The nudes were sculpted back in 2004 from live models and molded and casted in bronze a couple of years later after I moved to Colorado. They were the beginning of a series of sculptures called simple beauty in which the model was not so much posed according to a design I had in mind, but rather doing what she thought looked natural. Of course, there is nothing new with this idea as most art schools let the model choose the pose. I had observed some artists’ works whom I thought would let the model pose to their liking and noticed that the works were usually more pleasing to the eye. These were artworks that didn’t have much meaning and I had guessed them to be almost ‘spontaneously’ created. There seems to be a flow when you let a model choose a pose. Another example of this is in a commissioned piece I am working on. Several months ago, I had four models who were to pose for a project I was hoping to get. They were willing to take direction from me and when I had them take the pose that I had in mind, everything looked static and didn’t flow. So I asked them to naturally get in a pose that they were comfortable with (within certain guidelines). Well, what happened was the pose that they got into happened to be the pose I used for the maquette which ended up winning the competition. So this theory worked in the public art arena as well. My lesson was to not plan every detail out until models are hired (if they are hired) as nature usually proves to be the best option. Simple beauty was my first experiment into that idea.

#36 remembering Mrs. Bradley

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In the studio today I focused my attention on sculpting hands and several times throughout the day I was thinking of a great teacher I had and wishing that she were still with us.
Barbara Bradley was a great illustrator, teacher, and author of a book “Drawing People”. She was most known for her incredible drawing skills of children. What I learned in her class is immeasurable. Some days we would go outside of our classroom and into another classroom, those of elementary school children to study their behaviors, gesture, and proportions. It was great to sit next to her and watch her draw and listen to the little insights she had of kids. I know without Mrs. Bradley’s knowledge I wouldn’t have been able to win this commission “Sowing the Seeds”. I am applying as much as I can remember from those days long ago and I hope that she is watching from above and smiling. 
There are a lot of hands on this life size sculpture and each hand is a challenge. I do not consider hands my strongest talent, I do however realize this and I constantly work on it. Knowing that hands are the second most important part of a great sculpture, next to the face, I have to spend extra time making sure that they get plenty of attention. I was fortunate to have studied with a wonderful teacher back in the academy days as much of what I know about sculpting children was born with this great teacher, Mrs. Bradley. 


#35 2/9/12 Davis Enterprise article

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Davisite creates bronze tribute to dam builders

"Puddler's Lunch Break," a bronze statue of two Hoover Dam workers swapping stories, was created by artist Sutton Betti, who was born and raised in Davis. The monument was installed in 2009 in Boulder City, Nev. Courtesy photo

“Puddler’s Lunch Break,” a bronze statue of two Hoover Dam workers swapping stories, was created by artist Sutton Betti, who was born and raised in Davis. The monument was installed in 2009 in Boulder City, Nev. Courtesy photo
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From page A4 | February 09, 2012

“What is all the fuss about?”
Those were not the words artist Sutton Betti had in mind when sculpting “Puddler’s Lunch Break,” a monument in Boulder City, Nev. However, the statue created a lot of controversy when it was installed a couple of years ago in this small town 20 miles southeast of Las Vegas and home of the second largest dam in the United States.
The monument was created to honor the workers of Hoover Dam — known as puddlers — whose job it was to pour and smooth layer upon layer of concrete in what would be, at the time, the tallest dam in the world.
The statue came with an expensive price tag and many Boulder City residents were upset that the project happened despite budget cuts. But the classically inspired sculpture, which educates the many tourists who visit Hoover Dam, eventually won over the critics.
Sutton Betti, born and raised in Davis, is the artist who created “Puddler’s Lunch Break,” a monument showing two workers telling stories during a lunch break while building the dam.
“Although these guys lived during the Great Depression, they were not unhappy people as they were the lucky few who had jobs,” Betti said. “I wanted to show them happy.”
Now living in Colorado, the artist makes his home in Loveland, one of the world’s largest exporters of bronze sculpture. Although a small city of about 70,000 people, Loveland houses more sculptors per capita than any U.S. city and is known as the gateway to the Rockies.
With four bronze foundries, a stone quarry and dozens and dozens of independent specialists in the bronze business, Loveland is a unique city for a sculptor to live and work in.
Betti said he finds comfort in being surrounded by many of the nation’s most notable sculptors, including Jane Dedecker, George Lundeen and Kent Ullberg.
“These are artists whom I’ve admired for many years,” he said in a news release, “artists who have created monuments all over the United States. And now that I live here I get to learn from them and see how they work.”
Betti’s work is classical, and he has an appreciation of the old masters that goes back to his teenage years, when he received a book on Michelangelo from his grandmother.
He remembers traveling to Italy to study marble carving from master stone carvers and developing a deep appreciation of this ancient tradition.
“It was as if what was being taught to me was something that will soon be forgotten and these were men who were carrying on their backs hundreds of years of knowledge in marble carving,” Betti said.
In fact, many of the master craftsmen spoke unfavorably of the influence of modern and abstract art as if it were one of the reasons behind the loss of interest in stone carving, Betti said.
Until the turn of the 20th century, sculptors would hire these skilled artisans to create their monuments in stone. But today, with an influx of different abstract and modern art styles, these men are hard to find as they are not needed as much.
“The human figure in art, up until the late 19th/early 20th century, was very common,” Betti said. “After the impressionists came about, that all changed.”
Although Betti was surrounded by abstract and modern art for most of his life, he found something more meaningful and challenging in creating a realistic portrayal of the human body.
“There is so much freedom and expressiveness that can be created in a human figure, once you learn the basics of anatomy,” he said.
"Puddler's Lunch Break," a bronze statue of two Hoover Dam workers swapping stories, was created by artist Sutton Betti, who was born and raised in Davis. The monument was installed in 2009 in Boulder City, Nev. Courtesy photo

#34 bronze sculpture of a baseball player

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Sutton Betti’s “Homerun” bronze sculpture 

The latest sculpture to have sold from the 2012 Loveland Sculpture Invitational was from my athletics series. The sculpture was originally a private commission in 2011 from a woman in northern California who wanted to honor her grandson with a statue of him hitting a homerun. The sculpture is approximately 1/6 scale and is a limited edition of 15. Since selling the piece I had a friend tell me that I should enlarge this to half life or life size. Of course, it is always a mystery to me what pieces to choose to enlarge, but if I go by the feeling I have of the piece I’d like to do it.

#33 7/26/12 Broomfield Enterprise

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Sculpture picked as winner of Broomfield’s Choice Award evokes joy

Posted:   07/26/2012 12:00:00 AM MDT


Fran Milner, member of the Broomfield Public Art Committee, poses in March with the sculpture Green Thumb by artist Sutton Betti. The work was selected as the Art For Awhile program Broomfield s Choice Award winner through public voting. ( David R Jennings )
The joyful attitude of Sutton Betti’s “Green Thumb” sculpture has captured art lovers’ attention since it was installed as part of an art-on-loan program in Broomfield. Now the artist has won Art For Awhile’s Broomfield’s Choice Award for creating the statue of the elf with the wide grin.
Betti will receive a $1,000 award for his popular sculpture, which sits near the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library. Members of the public named it their favorite of eight sculptures installed throughout the Broomfield Civic Center area and the 1stBank Center promenade.
“Green Thumb” features an elf-like figure celebrating as he discovers a tiny plant growing at his feet. Lynn Jeffers, chairwoman of Broomfield’s public art committee, said voters liked the whimsical, light-hearted image.
“People wrote about how happy it made them and how they wanted to feel like that all the time,” she said.
“Green Thumb” and seven other sculptures are part of the Art For Awhile program. The art-on-loan program features rotating artists who offer everything from patriotic tributes to firefighters to celebrations of the environment to abstract, geometric works.
Art For Awhile has been around since 2009, but this is the first year the program has featured the Broomfield’s Choice Award. Residents were encouraged to visit all the sculpture sites and vote for their favorite.
More than 100 people voted, “which is pretty good for our first year,” said Cultural Affairs Manager Karen Gerrity.
Betti, the first Broomfield’s Choice Award winner, was honored at the final Wednesdays on the Waterfront show at the Broomfield Amphitheater.
Betti’s sculptures are inspired by what he describes as “a stew of art forms,” including illustration from the early to mid 20th century, classical music, the Beatles and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.
His family is made up of other artists and musicians, according to his website.
“You can see a lot of Sutton’s personality in the piece… you can really tell he had his heart in this one,” Jeffers said.
Jeffers said Betti’s sculpture complements the other Art For Awhile pieces, which are varied in style and expression. The collection will be up until October, when a new round of public art will be installed.
“All of our pieces are exceptional in their own ways,” she said. “Maybe people really appreciate modern or abstract work, maybe something deeply sentimental. We have a mix.”
Art For Awhile began as a thrifty way to brighten the city with public art, Gerrity said. Instead of investing in full-blown, permanent city art, a smaller amount of money went to sculpture “pads” that allowed a rotating display of art from around the country. Borrowed sculptures could be affixed to the pads for a certain amount of time, then replaced with newly borrowed pieces.
Organizers plan to continue Art For Awhile and the Broomfield’s Choice Award next year. Funding for the award comes from the Public Art Committee’s budget, and 20 percent of proceeds from the sale of the art also goes into the award fund as an honorarium for the winning artist. The award is also a way to attract quality work from around the country.
“We just want people to look at the art and say, ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool.’ That’s what public art is about,” Jeffers said.

#32 10/17/2012 update

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Nothing new to write about so I guess I’ll update you on the progress of Sowing the Seeds sculpture. Today I put in quite a bit of time on the sunday school teacher bulking her out some more. The woman and the little girl are still in rough form. Once I have the two of them filled out and I’m happy with the positioning than I’ll start laying on the clothing and updating with pics. I may start welding up the frame for the little boy next week once I find the time to run over to Fort Collins for some steel and welding wire. For the last several weeks, I’ve had quite a bit going on (details excluded so as not to bore anyone), but I’m finally beginning to feel normal again (or rather to feel abnormal again, ha!!). This weekend Jess and myself will take a much needed mini vaca. I’ve been stressed for too long and Jess is about to start school which I know will take up a lot of her time. Hopefully we will come back rejuvinated and ready for the work that lies ahead.

#31 Getting older and making art

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One of the neat things about being an artist is the reality that the older I get the more my collection of art grows. I think it is something that actually helps me as I approach 39 next month. Although I am shocked that I could possibly be closing in on 40, if I turn my attention instead to ‘well, look at how much my inventory is growing’ then the sadness turns to happiness and the barely visible wrinkles and bald head can be things to poke fun of at myself. “Oh look, I’m BALD, waaaahhhaaaahhaaaaa” or “my skin, it’s getting dry and wrinkles are forming, waaaahhhaaaahhaaaaa”. Having a growing inventory makes all of those problems disappear for me. When I think of say George Burns or Mother Theresa I don’t think “what old and wrinkly folks” I think “if I live that old what in the hell will my collection of art look like?” I mean, perhaps I’m a little off in some areas, well many areas perhaps, but this thought gives me comfort. I feel great knowing that if I play my cards right and don’t do something stupid like getting myself hurt so I can’t sculpt than my inventory will grow. Being a fine artist, freelance artist, commissioned artist, whatever, I have learned that the larger and more diverse my inventory is the greater the likelihood I can continue my passion of sculpting. It is a wonderful feeling for me and I imagine for most or all other artists and I hope that my passion for sculpting rubs off on those around me in the meanwhile. I believe the world needs more artists. More people who can laugh at themselves as they get fat, bald and wrinkly. Can’t you imagine walking into a restaurant with your best friend or wife and laughing hysterically that you discovered a new wrinkle on your forehead? How great would this place be? We wouldn’t have a need to go bombing other countries, religion wouldn’t need to be taken so damn seriously and school wouldn’t suck. I would’ve loved it if my teachers said things like “look at how ugly I am, but I don’t give a %$#$ because I have a lot of art”. Wouldn’t it be great?

#30 Sowing the Seeds- in progress

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For the next 3 months I’ll be busy working on this sculpture called “Sowing the Seeds”. It will be installed June 2013 at a local church here in my hometown of Loveland, Colorado. The theme is inspired by the parable of the sower in which Christ compares the seed to God, the sower to those who spread the word of God and the soil to the people who hear the word. In the sculpture a Sunday school teacher reads to two young children who are supposed to represent the ‘good soil’. The figures will be seated on a sandstone bench and cast in bronze. I expect this to be an 8-9 month long project, but I will not be working exclusively on this piece during that time as much of the process will be done at the foundry.