Artist Combines Plants And Animals To Create Magical Sculptures

Ellen Jewett, a sculptor in Canada, creates intricately detailed and handmade clay sculptures of animals that look like they’ve sprung to life and popped right out of our wildest dreams.Ellen says her inspiration comes “from animal physiology and a love of the fantastic, grotesque and absurd. Each sculpture is handmade and painted with no more tools than fingers and a paint brush. The process begins with a handmade metal armature over which light weight clay is sculpted. The painting is executed with acrylic, mineral and oil pigments and the embedded eyes are glass. When complete the whole piece is glazed to intensify colour and strength.”Ellen also avoids using any toxic materials; “This, unavoidably, excludes most of what is commonly commercially available, and has sent me on a journey of unique material combination and invention.”