Arno Goossens

As a sculpturist and biologist I am inspired by nature. As biologist I am fascinated by animals, their morfology, their movements and their behavior. With my sculptures I want to express this fascination. Even more I use the animals to express my feelings. By choosing a specific animal and posture to create the expression I want to show. Therefore I use a posture that is typical for the animal and that expression that fits its behavior.
Feeling proud I create a male peacock showing of with his beautiful feathers on its tail. Feeling in love I use the courtship of dancing cranes.
In the process of creating a sculpture I don’t use sketches but start modeling in wax. The challenge of sculpturing is to create the vague image in my mind with my hands and wax into the sculpture that will be casted into bronze.
I create realistic figurative sculptures. It is not my intention to create an exact copy of the animal its posture. It is my interpretation of the animal and especially its behavior and movement. I want to put the animals in such a position that it seems that they are going to move. The robust bronze sculpture should look like it would start moving.

The sculptures are casted by the cire perdu method, the lost wax method. I developed my own way of sculpturing, using my own patins and finishing of the personal touch on the bronze skin of the sculpture.
It is this traditional way of work and craftmanship that for me is an essential part of creating sculptures and gives me the satisfaction of working in bronze. The bronze is a robust and sustainable material that gives the sculpture a endless character and brings them to live.
I create my sculptures in series of twelve.

I started sculpturing twenty years ago. I am an autodidact. I have working together with different sculpturists and bronze casters. In this way I learned the techniques for modeling wax and casting bronze. Since fiveteen years I have exhibitions of my work in several galleries in different cities of the Netherlands and in New York City.


Portfolio:

Animals in bronze

In this portfolio my bronze sculptures of animals are shown.

Drinking Giraf “Drinking Giraf”

bronze, 16"x16"x16"

Courting Cranes “Courting Cranes”

bronze, 12"x6"x4"

Spanish Bull “Spanish Bull”

bronze, 6"x8"x4"

Proud Peacock “Proud Peacock”

bronze, 12"x12"6"

dancing Cranes “dancing Cranes”

bronze, 20"x16"x16"