Thread: Folk art birds

Good. For black, you got some good pictures. Your carving has a Raven's head proportions.

Crows have thinner beaks and a slightly notched tail.

Ravens have thick, larger beaks, the tail is slightly (but obviously) pointed.
Some of the Ravens around my place in the winter are truely BIG birds.
Possibly knee high and a 4-5 ft wingspan. Pretty much my daily companions from November to April.
They don't talk in the winter. Start again at the end of February.

Both species have more smarts than most small children.

I think the clue is in the title " FOLK ART birds "
I can appreciate folk art nowadays but I didn't always.
When I first started out carving I was preoccupied with getting "good" at it , which meant - the more closely the carving resembled the subject = the better a carving it was judged to be.
After years of practice & struggle I am a little closer to this "ideal" of realism BUT during all this focus on realism & the craft of carving I have come to wonder whether a certain primal creative/expressive energy evident in my earlier carving has been lost.
At its' best, folk art has this energy in spades & I love it !
The folk artist may not even have any reference of his subject in front of him , he can carve the very heart of an archetype & largely unconsciously - a deep & direct mind to mind communication with the viewer of the carving.
A folk artist is hardly concerned with mere outward appearances but inner realities.
How's that for a piece of art ? & is it not exactly what in modern times a fully trained & experienced artist aspires to do ?

To me, Folk Art carvings and Concept carvings are much the same. OTOH, there's a breed of carver attempting to count and carve
every feather right down to the nose hairs on a Raven. I don't admire the obsession but the results are the next best thing to real.

I think Claude is so good at it that he can pick the level of detail in the treatment of the subject ( I wish).

My Raven carvings have all been Concept = usually distorted to emphasize the common features of beak, head, something to indicate winds & feathers
but no feet to speak of. I saw those shapes in the wood. Nothing more, nothing less. The only time I see Raven feet is on hard packed snow in winter.

good job