A flowing pattern of floral forms made of elements inspired by Bird of Paradise feathers.  Created as a peaceful decorative work in a monochrome of white cotton sculptured paper elements, the shapes of which are revealed only by natural light and shade. I come back to these energy flows in many of my abstract works because they carry the viewer into a pleasing sense motion with no start or finish.

Created in Arches 250gsm hot pressed, French textured new cotton paper

Corporate Commission for Crown, Melbourne

Ray Besserdin

Floral Plumage

I do not labour my sketches, I leave them loose and when a shape I like appears, I immediately begin visualising it in 3D. It’s natural for me to find myself scrawling forms that somewhere in my life relate to memories of objects in nature.  
From my palette of the varieties of papers I store, I consider the textures and colours that might suit, and start tearing and moulding them into shape, roughly based on the preliminary sketch, and just watch what happens. 
“Eroded Blue” evolved from the memory of something geologic I might have found lying on a plain with wind swept eroded forms exposed to the elements, revealing beautiful textures and remnant shapes like something bearing a crystal coated inner face.
Made from a variety of German mould-made and Asian recycled, handmade papers bearing a mixture of shredded inclusions.
Framed in a limed Tasmanian Oak hardwood base fitted with a box of acrylic glazing.

Eroded Blue

I often go to where I can be at one with nature.  Nothing grounds and calms me the same way.  More than ever in the recently stressed times I find myself needing to be surrounded by trees, flowers, birds, and the ever-present activities of small creatures like bees, butterflies, and dragonflies. I love to observe them, and their forms fascinate me. It inspired to create this piece in the pure natural shades of the handmade papers I use as my palette; papers made from fibres sourced from nature like the subject matter depicted. There’s an integral relationship between my medium and objects in the composition that helps preserve the connection with the natural world from which I draw such valuable peace and centering. We all need a little of tranquility.Sculptured from Hahnemuhle (Germany) 300gsm cotton NOT, Arches (France) 310gsm cotton hot-pressed mould made papers and a variety of handmade Hemp, Flax and Kozo (Mulberry) papers from Awagami (Japan) and other Asian sources.

Tranquility

A stroll in the Australian Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Part 3/4.
Sculptured from Hahnemuhle (Germany) 300gsm cotton NOT, Arches (France) 310gsm cotton hot-pressed mould made papers and a variety of handmade Hemp, Flax and Kozo (Mulberry)papers from  Awagami (Japan).

Merit Award -"Yellow" - Art online exhibition | Art Room Gallery | USA 2022
Merit Award - Botanicals Competition / Grey Cube Gallery USA 2021
Silver Medal - Professional Artists Competition - Mondial Art Academia 2019| France
Second Place - Botanicals Exhibition - The Art Room Contemporary Gallery 2019

To Seaside

A stroll in the Australian Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, part 2/4. In entering these gardens, a left turn on the pathway takes us northward past a magnificent Ironbark stand followed by Box and Peppermint Eucalypts, and the distinctive Scribbly Gums with their bark decorated by abstract washes, like paintings. A wonderous landscape of cycads and ferns that once dominated Gondwana in the Palaeozoic Era, 180 million years ago. Sculptured from Hahnemuhle (Germany) 300gsm cotton NOT, Arches (France) 310gsm cotton hot-pressed mould made papers and a variety of handmade Hemp, Flax and Kozo (Mulberry) papers from Awagami.

Finalist Stanthorpe Art Prize 2021
Gold Medal for Creativity - Professional Artists Competition - Mondial Art Academia, France 2018 
First Place - Nature Exhibition - LightSpaceTime Gallery Florida 2018.

The Path to Gondwana

white

yellow

orange

purple

dark blue

green

light blue

brown

black

Acrylic

Aquatint

Canvas

Chalk

Charcoal

Clay

Concrete

Embroidery

Graphite

Gold

Mixed Media

Metal

Oil Paint

Paper

Pastels

Pencil

Pigment

Resin

Tempera

Textile

Watercolor

Collage

Other

Film

Digital

Ceramic

Wire

Wood

Yarn

Stone

Porcelain

Marble

Glass

Plastic

Design

Drawing

Engraving

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Linocut

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Text

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Performance

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Large

Medium

Small

Very Small

Green Dominion

The Red Sands Garden

Portrait of Anne Ducros - French Jazz Vocalist

Portrait of Sven Libaek - Australian-Norwegian Distinguished

Portrait of Don Burrows - Australian Jazz Woodwind Legend

Be inspired by artworks created in the natural beauty of one of humanity's oldest and most enduring mediums. 

All of what you discover here is sculptured by the artist from sheet-formed papers sourced from Europe and Asia.


About Ray Besserdin
32-year career, recognised internationally with 35 awards to date, including two gold from New York, and “Gold Medal for Creativity” from Mondial Art Acadamie, France.  Born to artist parents, entirely self-taught techniques of sculpturing dimensionally with only sheet-formed papers, much like bas-relief. Papers are mostly handmade cotton and mulberry stocks from Europe and Asia. Works range from miniature to over 6 by 3.8 metres, and abstract to ultra-realistic. Inspired mostly by painters of the French Impressionist Period and developed a technique to achieve expressiveness using torn papers build up three-dimensionally, where they used paint two dimensionally. Whilst his works can be abstract to figurative ultra-realism, he calls his signature style “Impressionist Sculptured Paper” for its use of torn, raw pieces arranged to form the subject matter.  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. Nature is his favourite subject matter. Works hang in private and corporate collections in London, Munich, Manhattan, Tokyo, New Zealand and throughout Australia.  

Ray is Australian Ambassador for Mondial Art Academia, France.

Ray Besserdin Paper Sculpture Artist- Available Works

Magazine Living Room

Ray Besserdin

collection: Abstract

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