Sutton Betti

Modern Classical Bronze Sculpture

Blog

#21 Tennis Player Alberta Brianti Sculpture

By

Sutton Betti.
Alberta Brianti clay for bronze, life size dimensions
Colorado, USA
Nearing completion on the clay sculpture of Alberta Brianti. The sculpture will be in a limited edition of 10 and cast in high quality silicon bronze. A small version of the sculpture (quarter scale) will be available in a limited edition and also cast in bronze. I’m planning on having the quarter scale piece and the life size plaster at the 2012 Loveland Sculpture Invitational.

#20 Memorial for Jessica Liddell-McIntosh

By

Jessica Liddell-McIntosh (1986-2009)
Installation day for the memorial of Jessica Liddell-McIntosh. The project was installed at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado on Thursday, March 29, 2012 and is my second permanent installation in Colorado. Although there is no figurative elements in the piece, I enjoyed making it as this is something quite unique from my past work. Commissioned by Jessica’s mother, the memorial is designed to show the young woman’s love of snowboarding. Being a snowboarder myself I was able to understand her daughters love of the sport. Today was a day, I felt, of closure to her daughters death. Emotions were expressed and love was shared. RIP Jessica Liddell-McIntosh. Photos of the finished installation in a few weeks.

#19 Niccolo Paganini-Bronze Sculpture

By

Niccolo Paganini, bronze, 66 inches height ©2011 Sutton Betti Sculptures
Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)
 
“Paganini was called “The Devil’s Son” and “Witch’s Brat” for his demonic and amazing violin virtuosity!  Audiences thought Paganini made a pact with the devil to be able to perform supernatural displays of technique!” 
-wasn’t that what they thought about the famous blues guitarist Robert Johnson? Jimi Hendrix?? and how about the Charlie Daniels Band and their song “Devil went down to Georgia”, Steve Vai and Ralph Macchio in the movie Crossroads? Well, Paganini was negotiating with the devil before there ever was a Robert Johnson. And he deserves a little credit for doing so.
 
I made this sculpture because of my love of Paganini’s music and his virtuoso playing skills as I am a former guitar player-although very amateurish. I listen to Paganini’s music 200 years after it was created and imagine his world. Imagining what it would have been like to hear him play live. He was the first virtuoso, before Eddie Van Halen and was doing it when no one else was. Of course, Eddie popularized a new way of playing an instrument (finger tapping, harmonics, etc.), but he didn’t invent it, he just did it in such a way that it become his signature. Paganini invented a whole new way of thinking of the instrument before anyone else did.
 
“Paganini single-handedly changed the course of music by inventing the cult of the performer. Before him, even the most talented, charismatic and successful musicians were at best respected, lived merely comfortably and were quickly forgotten upon their retirement or demise. Paganini, though, was worshipped hysterically, rewarded with fabulous wealth and still is remembered in awe. With Paganini, the performer became a superstar. Indeed, although he had no pupils and few successors, the line that began with Paganini extends through every musical idol of our time.” –
-http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics/paganini.html

#18 Alberta Brianti maquette

By

Alberta Brianti maquette

A few weeks ago I got the approval to sculpt a life size statue of the popular Italian womens tennis player Alberta Brianti. The sculpture will be in a limited edition of 10 and cast in bronze available sometime in July or August. Alberta is a unique tennis player in that she is one of very few womens tennis players who still uses the single hand backhand swing. Most womens tennis players use the double hand backhand (ie gripping the racquet with both hands) when hitting the ball because it gives them more power. This sculpture is designed to show the once popular tennis technique in a modern way where it is more and more of an uncommon sight at womens tennis tournaments across the world. The technique has advantages and disadvantages over the two handed. The advantages are that it allows for greater reach, it’s easier to hit lower and higher balls, and hitting slice is much easier. The disadvantages are that it does not have the power that a two handed has.

#17 Out with the new, in with the old

By

“Puddler’s Lunch Break” by Sutton Betti
Out With the New, In With the Old
 

 

“What is all the fuss about?” Those were not the words that artist Sutton Betti had in mind when sculpting “Puddler’s Lunch Break”, a monument installed in Boulder City, Nevada. However, the statue created a lot of controversy in this small town 20 miles south-east 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 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 of the town citizens were upset that the project happened despite budget cuts. But it was the classically inspired sculpture that eventually won the people over as it serves to educate the many tourists who visit Hoover dam.
Sutton Betti, born and raised in Davis, CA is the artist that 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. I wanted to show them happy.” Now living in Colorado the artist makes his home in one of the worlds largest exporters of bronze sculpture Loveland, Colorado. Although a small city of about 70,000 people it 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 finds comfort in being surrounded by many of the nations most notable sculptors including Jane Dedecker, George Lundeen and Kent Ullberg. “These are artists whom I’ve admired for many years. 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 when he was a teenager admiring a book on Michelangelo that his grandmother gave to him. He remembers going to Italy to study marble carving from master stone carvers and developing a deep appreciation of this long 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”. 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 says. Up until the turn of the 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 no longer needed. “The human figure in art up until the late 19th/early 20th century was very common. 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 you can pretty much do and say anything you want.”

 

#16 anatomy and art instruction booklet

By

I have been encouraged by a few people to make an instructional booklet and an ecorche (anatomical human body sculpture). Although I have never really taught sculpture I feel that it is something that I would like to do in the future. Many of my family members are teachers and I feel that it is in my blood and it would be selfish for me to go my whole life and not teach. What is it that I would like to help others with? Understanding the human body and art.

When I was a student at the Academy of Art we used to study cadavers at SFSU and my memory of this trip to the cadaver room is fairly vivid. There were about 30 dead bodies all on tables covered in a sheet. Our teacher, the sculptor and anatomist Thomas Marsh, would pull off the sheet to expose the dead body. Although a few people had to leave the room, most of the students were fascinated. To me it wasn’t a dead body. I saw muscles and bones and it all started to make sense having previously only seen pictures and illustrations of cadavers in a book. Seeing the muscles in the flesh (no pun intended) was pretty cool.

Years later I worked for a sculptor named Danielle Anjou. Danielle hired me to sculpt human bodies. That was all that I did, human body after human body. Working closely with her I cranked out about one figure every week and after about 2 years I did close to 60 sculptures for her (yeah, we added em up and I’m guessing I had quite a few slow periods as I should have completed about twice that). During that 2 year period I worked from only one ecorche. This ecorche was our prized possession and was huge in my growth as a sculptor and in understanding the human form. I think back on that time as yet another example of the importance studying anatomy was.

Although I have known for a long time the importance of understanding anatomy, it is only recently that I’ve noticed that I have the understanding to create one of these sculptures and accompanying booklet for others to learn from. It is now that I realize that all of my anatomy homework assignments were very instrumental in my understanding of the human body and understanding of the musculature (of which there is still SO much more to learn and I stress SO much more!).

I do not know when this anatomical sculpture will be ready, but I do plan on having it in the 2012 Loveland Sculpture Invitational. More photos to come in the coming weeks and months…

#15 She Loves Me 2011

By

During the 2011 Loveland Sculpture Invitational show I met a woman who deeply fell in love with one of my sculptures She Loves Me. Although I did have some people say how much they enjoyed my gnome series, none was more passionate about She Loves Me than her. After a few emails and a trip to her inn to discuss details of the sculpture, She Loves Me was purchased by the collector and installed October 2011. The sculpture was the 3rd large scale piece I made that was not a commissioned piece. She Loves Me is a sort of portrait of the artist and was inspired by my girlfriend Jessica. Below is a quick snapshot of the sculpture in the garden of the inn near the entrance. I will take more pictures in the near future.

#14 Green Thumb 2011

By

On October 31, 2011 I installed my sculpture Green Thumb for the city of Broomfield’s Art for Awhile program, a one year art on loan program setup in 2009 to display artwork, in particular sculpture. The five foot high sculpture is positioned on the west side of Broomfield’s Auditorium and Mamie Doud Eisenhower library and in between two other sculptures also selected for the one year program. Green Thumb is my second large scale sculpture that is not a commissioned piece. It is available for sale through the city for the duration of the program with a small percentage of the sale used to fund its permanent collection.

#13 Highland Park, IL show-“Rachel”, “Nude Study I”

By

For the last few days I’ve been juggling 5 different projects at my studio and all of them with approaching deadlines. The most recent one is getting two of my 12×12 reliefs ready for shipping to a juried show in Illinois. This will be the first time I’ve exhibited my reliefs to the public so I’m excited to see if anything happens. “Rachel” and “Nude Study I” are plaster originals 12″x12″ that I will have for sale at the Illinois show November 4-December 22.