Viewing some of my art work

I have a hard time shooting pictures of some of my art work. The pictures never quite show what I see. I suppose that’s a common complaint among amature photographers. Just the other day I discovered a way to shoot some of my work in a way that I really like.

I realized that I don’t interact with my work from a distance and see the work in a static view. No, I walk around or past each piece. Sometimes my eye catches one or two elements. Sometimes I get drawn into fragments. So I started shooting details of some of my pieces, isolating parts from the whole. For some pieces it works nicely.

Detail from painted table base by Todd Fillingham.

Detail from paper table by Todd Fillingham

This last image is a little off-putting I think. It is really not out of focus, this is how the print looks on the table base.

Another way that seems to work for me to shoot some of my work is to include some of the context or enviroment that the piece is in. Sometimes I like the environment to be a little undefined. Here’s a sketch for a carving.

Drawing by Todd Fillingham for a carving done in mahogany.

Resin nude on Paper Base Table, both by Todd Fililngham

And sometimes just shooting the piece in room it is shown in when the light is just right is OK.

Boy With Kite by Todd Fillingham

And this last piece I had to “photoshop” the background.

Resin, wire and cloth figure by Todd Fillingham

I’ll get back to that post about the next table I’m working on soon.

Oops, I wanted to add this painting as well.

Oh what a long time it’s been…

…since I’ve last posted.

I have been working on such a number of interesting projects. There’s one, really interesting one that has been mostly in the planning stages.  I’ll have to wait just a little longer before I can post about it. But, I’ve been busy in shop as well.

I’ve been working on a couple of tables for a long time client. Both of these are headed for my client’s Florida home. The first one is a very large coffee table. It measures 88″ by 55″. But the wild thing about it is that it is not flat. The top is wavy.

Todd cutting the table to size.

Here I am cutting of the end of the glued up butternut planks. The table was too big to run through my table saw and a sharp handsaw works just as well.

The planks had a natural curve to them so during glue up I took as much advantage of this as possible.

Carving the surface with disc grinder.

Here you can see some of the waviness. The table was so large and heavy that I had to plan my work to minimize how often I turned the piece over. I carved out the bottom face first then flipped it using a block and tackle.

I used a number of tools to shape the top.  Here are a few, ready at hand.

The final sanding was very tedious, but since this table was to be varnished with a gloss spar varnish it was very important. I spent a lot of time carefully sanding the top.

Careful sanding was a must.

The table is wrapped in blankets now and I haven’t taken any pictures of the final finish. I’ll try and get to that before the trucking company shows up.

Update: I found s few more images.

One of the base units being fit to the table top.

This and the next picture is of the table upside down as the two boxes that act as the base for the table are being fit to the wavy underside of the table top.

The 2 base boxes being fit.

The next project was another table with curves, for the same clients. That’ll be in the next post.

Update 2: I pulled back the blankets and took a picture of the finished table top.