A life-size, small delicate Arabian gazelle in a ghostly white colour standing, staring, as if glimpsed in or made of mist. I see the gazelle as a ghostly vision, fragile, pale and surprising, perhaps between trees in a clearing.
The sculpture is naturalistic, delicate and smooth but she is not the sandy desert colour she would be in life, rather a gleaming greyish white that brings to mind a classical marble or perhaps a creature of cloud.
The mountain gazelle is a desert species which can survive by drinking only dew from early morning mists, collected on her own fur. Siting an elusive, pale version in the Ligurian hills would be like a glimpse into a possible future, a reminder that water is precious.
White Gazelle was cast at Bronze Age fine art foundry in London in 2009. I first made the piece in plaster, worked on the wax cast and the final bronze to polish it smooth and then I patinated it in titanium white over a black liver undercoat to give it a misty depth. The patina will eventually turn a very, very pale green after a many years of weathering.
She stands a little over a meter high and so is a good size for stroking or for children to sit on. Her hooves are drilled and tapped so the sculpture can be fixed to a buried base.
I feel she couldn’t be better sited than in Colletta's beautiful parkland.
