Driftwood to work on

I like to use natural materials as a base for my sculptures to work on. Mainly because of the contrast with the style I add to it, but also for the story between artificial and natural behind it. More general; the way we get more and more detached from nature by making and inventing things and systems. Bones and skulls are a particular good base for a sculpture because it has this darkness of death around it, that makes it an even better contrast with the bright colours and funny characters.

But I was looking for something different to push myself to innovate and discover more expression and develop new techniques. Last year I have been trying some small sculptures with fossils, but I am not that enthusiastic about them. Only the fish I made were interesting. Fossils are hard, because they don't have extreme shapes and weird angles. Also, these limestone fossils aren't very obvious, so it is harder to see what I was trying to do.

For the coming months I will be experimenting different things with driftwood and see how the various things I have done, would come out by using this natural material. One of the thoughts I have right now, is using driftwood more as a canvas for a painting instead of a base for a sculpture. Let's see how that works...