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When your garden goes to sleep, your outdoor spaces can still come alive with sculpture that beckons the eye
Enhance Your Garden with Sculpture
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Fall 2007
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Greetings from Sculpturedale.
The season may be changing, but the sculpture
weathers whatever New England might throw at us! It
has been a busy year here at my studio, many visitors,
much new work, lots of good press. I hope you'll enjoy
some of the highlights as presented here in this
newsletter.
I've added a new section to my website
where new work is introduced before it is filed under
appropriate categories, but do look through each
section to see what is currently available.
I had a lot of fun doing some new animals, and then
found I had to expand my categories to accomodate
them. For example, frogs, turtles, rabbits... they are not
technically farm animals, so the previous Farm Animal
section is now called Farm Animals/Small Animals.
And don't assume that all available work is
necessarily on the website, since I often have a lag
between finishing a piece and finally having it
photographed and placed on the site.
Happy Holidays, and our wishes for a wonderful 2008.
Denis Curtiss
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Best of Breeds at Sculpturedale's Dog Show
Lots of new dogs are emerging from the studio and I
am having great fun creating them. So far there are
Hounds (Dachshund, Bloodhound Afghan
Hounds,and Bassets), Sporting Dogs (Golden
Retrievers, Setters), Working Dogs (Great Danes,
Newfoundlands). Non-Sporting (Bulldogs), and lots of
Terriers (Airedales, Welsh, Scotties, Westie), plus
other unique canines. They are all life-sized...and, of
course, well behaved!
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Visitors!
Visitors! Here's a fun shot of me with a group from a
rest home that came for a day's outing. A good time
was had by all! School groups, often art classes,
arrange for studio tours through the school year. A Boy
Scout group came for a field activity. And we will be
hosting a Sculpture Garden Tour and Wine in the
Studio, a "prize" won by the highest bidder at a Rotary
Club fundraising auction. Every weekend, in fact, there
is a stream of visitors coming through the studio and
enjoying the sculpture set throughout the property. If
you weren't among them, please consider stopping in
if you are in the area. And those of you who know your
way, come again to see what's new.
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Public Settings: Moon River Theater in Missouri
Andy Williams' Moon River Theater in Branson,
Missouri is where you can see many of my pieces.
Andy visited Sculpturedale himself, and subsequently
purchased 24 large animals. Most are on display now
at the Moon River Theater, so if you are in Branson,
you will have an opportunity to see a herd of
elephants, a group of giraffes, lots of bears, lions, and
more. Here on a high ledge, is a crouching lioness,
another ledge has a mountain goat! Andy is a
collector of fine art and much of it is displayed at this
theater, so my work mingles with Picasso's and
Warhol's and many others! It took three large trucks to
transport this menagerie from Connecticut to
Missouri, and the drivers later reported back to me that
it was one of the most fun drives they ever had as they
rolled down the interstates with giraffes and elephants
standing up in the breeze! I can imagine the double
takes as drivers passed!
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Garden Conservancy private garden features several pieces
I am proud to have sculpture at a special private
garden in Millbrook, New York, which was chosen to
be one of The Garden Conservancy's national show
places this year. The Garden Conservancy has a
garden-visiting program which organizes Open Days
throughout the year, when these special gardens may
be visited, and proceeds from this program go toward
preservation of national treasures, conservation,
education and training, etc. In Millbrook, there is a
twenty-eight acre homestead lush with fine trees and
perennials. The long driveway is screened with pines
and maples, marking the edge of a large green field.
Beckoning the eye toward the field's far edge is one of
my bright red abstract pieces. In the garden
complementing the poolside area, nestles a large
tortoise sculpture of mine. And at the end of a sweep
of bright perennials at the top of the drive is a circle
where a hippo welcomes visitors.
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Read All About It!
Several magazines, a book, and another television
show have featured my work this year.
Yankee
Magazine's annual travel issue chose 302 places in
all of the six New England states that one should visit,
and Sculpturedale was one of them. A new book
titled "Consumate Connecticut" recommends
Sculpturedale as a destination to include. And the
magazine "Connecticut Home & Garden"
wrote: "Looking for a larger-than-life conversation
piece for your yard? Take a ride to Sculpturedale on
Route 7 in Kent, where you'll see trotting horses,
leaping mountain goats, joyful dancers and playful
cats--all fabricated of steel and bronze by artist Denis
Curtiss...Taking a stroll through the sculptor's
fascinating habitat is like going on safari, only safer..."
The article goes on to interview me about how to
choose sculpture for your yard, and I'll share some of
my suggestions with you here to help in your
decisions.
Proportions: If it's too big, a sculpture can
overpower a space; too small and it gets lost. Think
about whether it will live in a small space or be seen
from a distance.
Dimensions: Vertical pieces look
best among tree trunks, while horizontal sculptures sit
more comfortably along a long hedge or wall.
Placement: The best location for yard art is
one you
can get to easily, and also see from a window in your
home for year-round enjoyment. Interactivity: Some
pieces are better suited to solitude, but sometimes it's
nice to place two or more sculptures together.
Maintenance: It's a good idea to choose a
sculpture
that can weather the vagaries of our climate. Pieces of
rusted steel keep their patina for years without any
attention.
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Size Matters
My work is generally life-size or even larger, which
makes it work so well when sited outdoors in gardens
and terraces. But I am asked if I have anything small,
particularly by those in Manhattan who do not have
room for a ten foot giraffe in their apartment! To
simply miniaturize that giraffe, though, would
imbalance the clean lines that I strive for. As I thought
and drew, a new style emerged, which is equally
uncluttered with details, but with the right balance of
detail to work with a small scale while still defining the
character of the animal. Thus, Basics emerged. And
these were instantly popular. The size makes them
placeable inside any home or apartment, though they
are still durable enough to live outside on a deck or
balcony. They are easily shipped, unlike a five
hundred pound elephant! And they are affordable,
ranging from $300 to $400, so they can be gifts, or
collected as multiples.
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