New Sculpture in Wood

Landscape is, perforce, a difficult thing to execute well in sculpture. Since landscape is hard to do well in sculpture, and because my wood working skills were rusty (pun intended), I recklessly proposed to some clients I do several urban landscape themes in wood. These are the first two pieces, each 67 inches long by 9 inches high (1.7 meters by 24 cm) Later this year, I'll be doing a third piece this size and then a larger, I hope spectacular piece, in wood of "cliff cities"--much like the dwellings left by the Anisazi in the American Southwest.
For the first time in nearly ten years, I did some work in wood. A local couple commissioned some pieces for their new home. They had orginally been intrigued with the abstract steel valences I'd done for my own home. After I visited their house, it seemed to me that steel would be too harsh for the setting. I noticed, that all the painting and photos they had bought for their walls were of urban landscapes.

The steel valences I created for our living room are completely abstract--here is one of the ones they saw.

I don't have a wood workingshop, but I do have a friend and neighbor, Frank Mansfield, who builds wonderfully detailed wood models in his retirement, who let me use his shop and offered his advice on wood working.

I wanted the first two wood pieces to direct the eye in the dirction of the other. The first two were for the clients' dining room.
The overall horizontal structure ofthe pieces conveys the idea of a landscape and the verticle little "buildings," add the texture and color (I used a variety of woods but no stains other than a sealer). A nice thing about this style is it could be used to make entirely abstract wood pieces for verticle areas in the home or office.
(CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR ENLARGEMENTS)
each piece measures 67 inches wide by 9.5 inches high (1.7 meters by 24 cm)

Close up of the pieces...