Last Friday, at lunch time, the more courageous GEC pupils and teachers (it was a bitterly cold day, despite the sunshine) went to town and visited Gilles Sellier's workshop.
Gilles Sellier studied at the " Ecole Régionale d'architecture de Volvic" (Puy-de-Dome) then began to work in Volvic itself. Three years later, when he noticed that there weren't any stone cutters in this part of the Cantal, he found a place where he could work, in Aurillac.
This is where we met him, in his workshop, littered with bits of granite and volcanic rubble, cluttered with tools big and heavy or sharp and small. Dust, smoke, scribbled papers, bits of wood, banging noises... and this Thor in the mids of chaos, though nice, quiet, almost timid... He expressed himself best by showing us how he carved into the hard volcanic rock to shape a giant 'V'.
He likes to say that "it's the stone which chooses me...". What a beautiful sentence for a man who works all day out in the cold bashing stones (his workshop has a wall missing, to let the stone dust fly away...). To do this kind of work you have to be either crazy or fanatical, which is the same thing when you think about!
You can see on this picture some of the tools he uses. They are called : "ciseaux" (scissors). If you see "picots" (little dots) on the stone work of a building, it's a new building, because the tool used is a recent invention, whereas if there are lines, that means an older tool has been used, and it's therefore an older building.
Some of Gilles' work can be seen in Aurillac: Place du nounours (the big white teddy bear is by him); the fountain opposite the Bar du Marché (with the ugly frogs!) near the Town Hall.
Gilles has a gallery of his smaller work in Impasse Marigny which is very much worth a visit!
For more information, click:
ici (check out page 17) and there
1 comment:
Hello boys and girls!
This morning, -7° at the thermometer in my workshop...
So only LOVE can help me to carve.
See you later when you want.
Gilles.
Post a Comment