Sian Faber is an artist who has moved from painting to sculpture, from watercolours to glass & stone,
& from the beaches of Australia to the mountains of Southern Spain.
Her latest works are a series of wall-mounted sculptures which connect the opposite ends of the
physical spectrum - "Water from Stone” & "Movement from Stone"
From Painter...
Sian has a passion for ocean and beaches, as evidenced by her dramatic wave paintings, which, as she says, "use water to paint water”.
.... to Sculptor
The opportunity to extend herself as an artist with the move to Europe was too good to miss. So she travelled, & marvelled & studied... and the result has been an artwork series in an entirely new medium.
This new medium is an adaption of the Byzantine mosaic techniques she first saw & studied in Italy - but with a contemporary twist.
And while she's held true to the subject of water & its movement, this too has been given a contemporary twist.
To produce wall-mounted sculptures, Sian first chooses a stone 'setting' as her canvas.
Then, she personally hand-cuts & places thousands of tiny glass shards in a ripply water pattern that interplays with light - just like the sun reflecting off the surface of streams, seas & lakes.
This allows her to juxtapose the movement of water with the beautiful markings left in the stone which were - themselves - caused by movement, the earth's movement.
In this way, the artwork engages on multiple levels. There's a relationship between nature & the artist, a relationship between the stone setting & the glass shards (movement, stone & water) and - on a whole different level - the changing interplay of light absorbing, reflecting or refracting off the shards & stone.
This is something to be experienced in person as it can't be captured faithfully by the still image... see "ShardCuts First Reactions" video:
In the artist's own words
My Journey...
The last five years have been all about change & adaptation for my husband and me, and moving around the planet, in particular to undergo
a self-funded university in Europe, studying & experiencing its art and culture.
After 30 years living in Sydney’s urban vibrancy, we spent 5 years in Gaucin, In between sheltering in New Zealand for Covid & have now returned to our small pueblo blanco on a mountain-top in Andalucia, one of the most beautiful parts of Spain.
We have adapted ourselves to a whole new everything - and all while speaking some pretty shocking spanish.
Originally I thought I’d be painting in oils in Europe... but then I had my first encounter with Gaudi and experienced his great architectural homage to the beauty of our natural world at the Sagrada Familia. It blew my mind.
The possibilites expanded further after visiting Italy... San Vitale in Ravenna... the glory of the Byzantine mosaics from the still firing furnaces of Murano,
Venice... schooling at Spilembergo, Ravenna & Orsoni Glass in its HQ in Venice itself.
I was hooked, I wanted to learn the traditional techniques of Byzantine glass mosaic and then craft them with my own voice. Since then I have “stolen” from the ancient practises of Roman, Byzantine & Islamic mosaic and the philosophy of Spanish Gaudí to create a tangible texture of movement in colour and light,all set into my stone wall sculptures.
It's been a steep learning curve over 4 continents ( Australia,Asia,Africa & Europe)sourcing materials & learning techniques, emerging with new
perspectives & mediums.
There are so many differences between the two main mediums I've chosen, but none is more stark than the speed of creation.
When I paint, I work fast, using watercolours in a kind of a controlled chaos, & whether the result is good or bad, I get there quickly.
When I work with stone & glass, the process is very measured, and planning starts weeks before the marble or glass is ordered... and only after they've arrived can the pain-staking process of creation begin.
Working piece by piece in rhythmical patterns has become almost meditative... and seeing my vision slowly materialise pixel-by-pixel right
before my eyes is extremely satisfying.
I hand-place individual glass shards - using colours & special placement angles in repeat patterns - to contrast or harmonise with what nature has produced in the stone 'setting'.
I feel that Mother Nature is a formidable abstract artist., and working with natural stone is a real privelege. - and I love that collectors of my art are hanging a beautiful piece of the mountain itself on their walls.
Enjoy exploring my site, and please follow me on my Socials - details at foot of page.
The majority of Sian's artworks have been commissioned & are in private collection in Australia, the UK, Europe and USA.
At present, she is continuing work on her practice in Gaucin Spain... creating a body of work for Art Gaucin (an artists collective), & her Spanish solo exhibition in Estepeona (Malaga) & formal gallery representation in New Zealand & Australia.
Resumé
