Thanh Duong, Gum Leaves (ART, OBJECTS 2021)

On a carving tour at Surrey Hills Garden a few years ago, I came across the Surrey Hills War Memorial shrine and there I saw the many works by Australian Carver John Kendrick Blogg particularly of gum leaves. These provided me with a huge inspiration to create my own work of a carving of Australian gum leaves in wood. I spent some time selecting from many real life branches a suitable branch of eucalyptus. I pinned this to cardboard and added some additional gum nuts to complete the design. Lime / bass timber was chosen and two pieces were glued together with grain running vertically to improve the strength of the carved leaves. This high relief carving of a life sized gum leaves using mainly Pfeil hand chisels took about 3 months and completed during the Covid Lockdown in Victoria in March 2020. The carving is from one piece of timber providing a significant challenge to capture and present the lifelike nature of the eucalypt branch with its fragile twigs and leaves. The carving was finished with a coat of diluted Linseed oil and turpentine, and a light coat of clear wax. Gum leaves - 30.5W x 23 H x 3.5H cm, Lime timber

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