02 Art & Activities

Sculpture Garden

Sculptures can be found all around the estate. Art and wine bonded together in a rustic environment. Close to the ancient well and the Arab inspired razor edge pool we have created an enclosed area with grass and traditional Calcadas (small paving stones). We use this area for permanent and temporary sculpture exhibitions of both our own work and the work of other artists that we want to share with the public.
 
Most of the stones we use come directly from the fields around the estate. They have been formed from partially metamorphic material, partially of compressed sand, partially the remains of sea shells and others fossils. It is a very fragile material which –in its original state- can hardly be identified as a potential basis for a sculpture. As far as we are aware we are the only sculptors in the Algarve who work with these field stones.

In the beginning we took our inspiration simply from the material itself. As its origins were doubtless in the sea we created abstract forms which reminded us of sea plants or organic maritime structures. Once we had learned more about the stone and the techniques and materials required to work it, we began working on naturalistic sculptures as well.
 
The other stones we work with are mainly Portuguese marble coming mostly from the area of Estremoz in the Alentejo which has huge numbers of quarries. If we do not have a very specific sculpture designed, we try not to work in cubes or blocks of stones. Instead of these artificial shapes which do not help to create ideas by themselves we prefer to work with large fragments of marble which can be found in quarries from time to time. These stones, with a weight of  15 – 18 tons, have a weathered look and their shape and textures, give us inspiration.
 
Another feature of our sculptural works are very large sculptures up to 5 meters high. It is very difficult for a non industrial team of sculptors to work with stones of this size mainly due to the costs of transport and handling problems. Just imagine that 1 cubic meter of marble weighs around 2.800 kg. A base stone for a huge sculpture of say 5x3x2 m would have a weight of around 84 tons! 
 
Some sculptures need to have a specific size in order to come across as something special. We took our inspiration from the artist Niki de Saint Phalle who became famous for the introduction of the “Nanas” to the world. It would go beyond the scope of this introduction to go too much into details. What can be said however is that we studied her techniques and materials and have transformed them to sculptures for our century. The major structure of these light weighting but huge sculptures is build up using large blocks of polystyrene. When the basis sculpture is created, several layer of a protective material have to be applied. This is imperative as the following structural improvement is now done like in modern ship building: with polyester and glass fibre. Without the protective layers between the polystyrene and these materials a chemical process would develop, causing strong damages to the sculpture. Very time intensive priming and filling completes this work. Sculptures which should simply represent a specific form will receive a final coat of paint. Others which have been created as a combination of a sculpture and a painting will now be passed to another artist, specialised in paintings.

We have created some very interesting and huge sculptures which look amazing on large estates or exhibition places.

  Download Art at Quinta dos Vales  

  Download Definition Wall Sculpture