Short BIO
Ray Besserdin has established a 34-year career that is recognised internationally with over 35 awards to date, including two gold from New York, and a “Gold Medal for Creativity” from Mondial Art Academia, France. Born to artist parents, Ray’s techniques are entirely self-taught. He sculptures artworks dimensionally much like bas-reliefs working with “a palette of sheet-formed papers” that offer a wide spectrum of colours, textures, solidity, and delicate translucency. The stocks are mostly mould-made or handmade cotton, mulberry (Kozo), hemp and flax stocks from Europe and Asia. Works range from miniature to over 6 by 3.8 metres and vary from abstract to ultra-realistic. Inspired by painters of the French Impressionist Period, Ray pioneered and developed a technique to achieve their kind of aesthetic expression using sculptured torn papers three-dimensionally, where they used paint two- dimensionally. This “Impressionist Sculptured Paper” is what he considers his signature style. Its focus is to capture emotion, life, and expression over realism using torn, raw pieces arranged into the likeness of the subject yet always revealing the character and nature of the papers from which the subjects are created. Nature is his favourite subject matter. Works hang in private and corporate collections in London, Munich, Manhattan, Monaco, Tokyo, New Zealand and throughout Australia.
Ray is Australian Ambassador for Mondial Art Academia, France.
Artist Approach
Paper has been deeply fascinating to me since childhood. Being born to artist parents ensured I always had a good supply of whatever materials and support I needed to satisfy my creative appetite, and above all, a simple blank sheet of paper was a piece of endless possibilities. It begged me to draw and paint on it, or make something out of it, and so my passion with the medium was born.
Those youthful experiences evolved into self-taught techniques of creating artworks whereby my love of the expressiveness of painting and drawing blend with the three-dimensional sculpting capabilities of simple sheet-formed papers to create works much like bas-reliefs. Most of my works are best understood as being something between painting and sculpture.
Instead of paint, my palette is of papers that are mostly mould-made European cottons and a wide variety of Asian handmade mulberry, hemp, and flax fibred stocks. The extreme beauty of many papers is such that they are almost a work of art in themselves, so it is vital to me that their intrinsic beauty is visible in all their nature when viewing my works. The art is therefore, best appreciated when viewing the originals where the delicate translucence and texture or natural inclusions of some of the papers can truly be seen. Some papers are a mere 4gsm where others a massive 1000gsm and knowing my mediums, such as what weights, textures, colours, and fibre bases to use where, is understanding the sculptural characteristics and predicting the outcomes. Each requires different handling techniques and methods of forming into the desired shapes. It is as significant an aspect of my art as for other artists knowing their mediums.
Whilst most works are built onto a backing base, I also create freestanding works, the largest of which stands 6 metres long by 3.8metres high and almost a metre deep, astounding viewers for the rigidity, while all made from paper.
Inspired by painters of the French Impressionist Period, I have pioneered and developed a technique to achieve their kind of aesthetic expression using sculptured torn papers three-dimensionally, where they used paint two- dimensionally. This “Impressionist Sculptured Paper” is what I consider my signature style. While likeness is important, the focus is to capture emotion, life, and expression over realism, yet always revealing the character of the papers from which the subjects are sculptured. Inherent in my beloved medium is the ease of becoming mechanical and hard edged. The motivation, therefore, was to break from the confinement of figurative realism, creating subjects that would be static and lifeless reproductions rather than living impressions. And so evolved my impressionist style. A way to reveal life in the subject, the nature of the medium, and not being mechanical in the technique.
The one exception I make to the papers alone is introducing ink tints for contrast and to add mood variety to my works, where it exceeds the possibilities of the paper's own colours.
Nature is my favourite subject matter and, in some form, even finds its way into the abstract designs. Most works will take between 3-6 weeks to complete, are extremely archival and guaranteed to last many generations.
Social Media links
https://www.instagram.com/papersculptureartist/
https://twitter.com/besserdin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raybesserdin/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008212989533
Ray Besserdin has established a 34-year career that is recognised internationally with over 35 awards to date, including two gold from New York, and a “Gold Medal for Creativity” from Mondial Art Academia, France. Born to artist parents, Ray’s techniques are entirely self-taught. He sculptures artworks dimensionally much like bas-reliefs working with “a palette of sheet-formed papers” that offer a wide spectrum of colours, textures, solidity, and delicate translucency. The stocks are mostly mould-made or handmade cotton, mulberry (Kozo), hemp and flax stocks from Europe and Asia. Works range from miniature to over 6 by 3.8 metres and vary from abstract to ultra-realistic. Inspired by painters of the French Impressionist Period, Ray pioneered and developed a technique to achieve their kind of aesthetic expression using sculptured torn papers three-dimensionally, where they used paint two- dimensionally. This “Impressionist Sculptured Paper” is what he considers his signature style. Its focus is to capture emotion, life, and expression over realism using torn, raw pieces arranged into the likeness of the subject yet always revealing the character and nature of the papers from which the subjects are created. Nature is his favourite subject matter. Works hang in private and corporate collections in London, Munich, Manhattan, Monaco, Tokyo, New Zealand and throughout Australia.
Ray is Australian Ambassador for Mondial Art Academia, France.
Artist Approach
Paper has been deeply fascinating to me since childhood. Being born to artist parents ensured I always had a good supply of whatever materials and support I needed to satisfy my creative appetite, and above all, a simple blank sheet of paper was a piece of endless possibilities. It begged me to draw and paint on it, or make something out of it, and so my passion with the medium was born.
Those youthful experiences evolved into self-taught techniques of creating artworks whereby my love of the expressiveness of painting and drawing blend with the three-dimensional sculpting capabilities of simple sheet-formed papers to create works much like bas-reliefs. Most of my works are best understood as being something between painting and sculpture.
Instead of paint, my palette is of papers that are mostly mould-made European cottons and a wide variety of Asian handmade mulberry, hemp, and flax fibred stocks. The extreme beauty of many papers is such that they are almost a work of art in themselves, so it is vital to me that their intrinsic beauty is visible in all their nature when viewing my works. The art is therefore, best appreciated when viewing the originals where the delicate translucence and texture or natural inclusions of some of the papers can truly be seen. Some papers are a mere 4gsm where others a massive 1000gsm and knowing my mediums, such as what weights, textures, colours, and fibre bases to use where, is understanding the sculptural characteristics and predicting the outcomes. Each requires different handling techniques and methods of forming into the desired shapes. It is as significant an aspect of my art as for other artists knowing their mediums.
Whilst most works are built onto a backing base, I also create freestanding works, the largest of which stands 6 metres long by 3.8metres high and almost a metre deep, astounding viewers for the rigidity, while all made from paper.
Inspired by painters of the French Impressionist Period, I have pioneered and developed a technique to achieve their kind of aesthetic expression using sculptured torn papers three-dimensionally, where they used paint two- dimensionally. This “Impressionist Sculptured Paper” is what I consider my signature style. While likeness is important, the focus is to capture emotion, life, and expression over realism, yet always revealing the character of the papers from which the subjects are sculptured. Inherent in my beloved medium is the ease of becoming mechanical and hard edged. The motivation, therefore, was to break from the confinement of figurative realism, creating subjects that would be static and lifeless reproductions rather than living impressions. And so evolved my impressionist style. A way to reveal life in the subject, the nature of the medium, and not being mechanical in the technique.
The one exception I make to the papers alone is introducing ink tints for contrast and to add mood variety to my works, where it exceeds the possibilities of the paper's own colours.
Nature is my favourite subject matter and, in some form, even finds its way into the abstract designs. Most works will take between 3-6 weeks to complete, are extremely archival and guaranteed to last many generations.
Social Media links
https://www.instagram.com/papersculptureartist/
https://twitter.com/besserdin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raybesserdin/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008212989533
Besserdin_Ray_CV
