Artist Carves Realistic Grizzly Bear in Soapstone

Jukin Media

This artist liked to create highly expressive wildlife stone carvings. This time, he made a grizzly bear soapstone carving called 'Alpine.' He shaped and detailed the sculpture with hand tools and machines. Then he sanded and painted it. The grizzly bear standing on the rock looked realistic and unique.  *The underlying music rights are not available for license. For use of the video with the track(s) contained therein, please contact the music publisher(s) or relevant rightsholder(s).

Transcript

00:00 Hi everyone, my name is Andrew Gable and I am a stone carver. Strangely, I never wanted to be a

00:05 stone carver. Yes, I wanted to be an artist, but carving wasn't even on my radar. It's one of those

00:12 things that life puts in front of you totally unexpected and says, "Here, this will be perfect

00:17 for you." And that was eight years ago. Now, don't get me wrong, I was uniquely prepared for the

00:23 endeavor. A background of practicing art for 15 years before I found carving, along with a mix of

00:28 various labor and skilled jobs, and of course growing up close to nature, helped in developing

00:34 a deep appreciation for wilderness and the animal kingdom. Anyways, hundreds of carvings later, here

00:40 I am. This is a grizzly bear, my most popular subject. I'm actually amazed at how I can carve

00:46 the same subject over and over and not get bored. I used to play this video game when I was younger

00:51 called NHL 94. Yes, it was a hockey game, and yes, I like hockey. I am from Canada. Anyways, I could

00:57 play this game over and over, and it was kind of a closed system, but each variation that I would

01:02 play would be slightly different than the last. With my carvings, there are various dimensions

01:07 at play that make each piece totally unique and unexpected. Of course, no two stones are alike.

01:13 I also change as a person. Maybe I carve a piece during the middle of winter when it's cold and

01:18 there's snow falling, or in the middle of the summer heat. All of these factors play a role

01:23 in the final form. Maybe I encounter a crack in the stone that suddenly changes my design in a

01:28 moment. So each bear I carve has its own unique personality. I think of my carvings as a

01:34 collaboration with the various elements and qualities of life. Of course, also there is that

01:40 internal drive within me to improve as an artist, and often when I finish a piece, I'm already

01:46 looking at what I could do with the next one to improve on it or make it better. Whether I need

01:51 to tighten up and refine the details more or loosen up and allow more play and expression

01:56 through, this piece I'm working on here is titled "Alpine." I find the colors complement this title

02:02 with the earth tone browns at the bottom moving up into the green forest colors at the top.

02:06 I had a general idea of this color transition when I began carving this piece,

02:11 and so I deliberately placed the head in such a way where it would contain all these green parts.

02:16 The color of the stone does inform the design sometimes, and in this case it did.

02:20 This piece is carved in Brazilian soapstone. Once it's complete, I will deliver it to the gallery

02:26 that represents my work. Most of my work is sold through a gallery. I have been fortunate to have

02:32 my work collected and part of many private collections around the world. Canada, U.S.,

02:37 Australia, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, to name a few. Thank you for watching,

02:43 and be sure to follow me across all social media platforms. And if you're interested

02:49 in collecting my work, feel free to message me. See you next time.

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