Featured Female Nude Torso Sculpture

Found this over the weekend. It's 10" (25cm) tall, solid and heavy. Some kind of ceramic. Hand-made, as is especially evident on the inside.

It seems to be 'painted' in graphite-- whether charcoal or heavy pencil or something else. The coloring transfers to my hand, as you can see.

It has presence.

Does this look like student work to you or something better? Is this perhaps a preliminary stage towards making a bronze / metal sculpture or does it look like a finished process?

Thank you for any and all comments friends!

 

I think student too .But a talented one. I dont understand that finish. Maybe it was prepped to be fired and they just didnt do it ? What does it smell like ? Oily ? greasy ? Metallic ?

 

I think from a quick evaluation it's a fine study of a mature woman in her 40's early 50's done with a fair amount of sensitivity.
Lots of decent sculptors just don't have the funds to have their work cast at a bronze foundry.There's a fairly well-known foundry in Joseph,OR, but there's gotta be a few closer. I'd run it by a few colleges and an art & or commercial/architectural foundry.
There's a multitude of ways to cast a sculpture-might even be able to find this technique on Wiki ?
Nice my friend-good eye !

 

No smell to note-- It seems very much like graphite to me. I can rub it gently and make it a little more shiny. Maybe someone was taking a short-cut to a metallic- like sheen?

 

I appreciate the comments @bosko69. I tend to agree with you that there's a degree of sensitivity and subtlety.

Thanks buddy! I aspire to be a cheap-skate art collector!

 

I was just studying the superb Bauhaus- trained ceramicists Marguerite Wildenhain last night.
She passed in 1985 and I lived roughly 10 miles from where I grew up (my g-friend was 3 mi down the road). I probably could've taken classes from Her, but I was rather busy pursuing a curriculum I'd began in the 1960's w/ Doc Kesey,et all. Can't be at all places simultaneously-unless yer Dr. Who.
Good work & go west young man.

 

Don't forget the WPA guys-'Art For The Masses', it just takes turning off the tube 2 minutes a day.It's a stretch,but aerobicize your brain.