Greetings and salutations!
This is the first installment of my new newsletter, a quarterly epistle I will use to keep you updated with new Artwork!
I will send out a letter at the end of each season because that is typically when I finish new projects. Art takes time to make, so anything more frequent than that would be superfluous.
My website is updated with new work even now, consisting of figure sculptures and landscape paintings, which I would encourage you to check out!

What have I been up to?

After getting my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting in Indianapolis, IN I spent 2020, like most, cooped up inside. Two exhibitions and two Artist Residencies which I had lined up for 2020 were tragically canceled and I was forced to move back home. During what became a “gap year,” I worked on personal projects in my basement and some painting commissions, but had a lot of time for quiet reflection. This lead me to make a drastic change by applying to a three year sculpture program in Florence, Italy. I had always loved sculpture and decided it was time to learn the craft. I was accepted into The Florence Academy of Art, a renowned art academy for figurative realism. For the past two years I’ve been living and studying in Florence sculpting the figure in a studio. On the weekends, I venture outdoors to paint the beautiful city and the vast Italian countryside. It’s been a pleasure and in just a short time I’ve learned more about figurative sculpture than I could have dreamed!
Now, I would like to share what I’ve made.

The Sculpture Process

Making a sculpture from start to finish entails a lot, more than people know! The journey starts by making an armature: a bendy metal skeleton which holds up the clay. Then clay modeling, which is the main bit. You start from the center with a handful of clay and add-add-add until you’re done! A portrait, such as Rainfall, takes roughly 30 hours of work to complete this step. Whereas the torso shown below, Strenuus, took over 150 hours spread over a 10 week period. The photos for both those pieces show the sculptures in this state, the finished clay.
From there, you make a mold. This requires covering the clay in a thick layer of silicone, which will imprint all the detail. Then, cover the silicone with either resin or plaster to act as a hard shell, which holds the overall shape. As soon as you finish the mold, you open it up and discard the clay! That’s right, most people don’t know but you throw the clay away! All that remains is the mold.
Finally, the cast. Typically one would cast in bronze, which is another process in itself. But casts can also be made in resin or plaster, which are lighter and less expensive than their shinny metal counterpart. The photo of Child of Doom shown above is a resin cast with brown wax applied to the surface. After mounting to a base, which could be marble or wood, you are done!
You have a full sculpture!

Over the course of the three year program we do a variety of projects including portrait busts, torso fragments, and full figure. We also work in several scales: life size, 3/4 life size, and 1/2 life size. Next year I’ll start with a 3/4 scale reclining female figure, then a 3/4 scale standing male, and I’ll finish the program in the Spring of 2024 with a life size standing female sculpture.

Plein air painting

Although most of my time is spent in the studio sculpting, I still remember my love for painting. I would be remise to forsake the opportunity to paint this beautiful, vast landscape during my time here. The countryside of Tuscany is as striking as the post cards make it seem, so I take whatever free time I have to go out and capture it. “Plein air” is French for “in the open air” and simply means painting on-site, outside, in the midst of nature.

Thank you for your time and attention!

These and many more sculptures and paintings can be found on my website, gabrielakre.com
Information about prices, materials, and dimensions are also available on the website by clicking on the image. If you’re browsing on mobile, click the little black dot on the bottom right corner of the image to pull up information.
All work is available unless it has already sold! Sculptures are able to be cast in bronze, resin, or plaster. Prices will differ based on material. Please inquire if you have any questions or if you’d like to purchase a piece!

More frequent updates are posted to my instagram account: @gabrielakreart