Bill’s art a dead ringer for life

By Emma Sun
BILL Ogilvie’s bronze sculptures are a case of art imitating life.
His works are mainly focused on the human form and movement, with an emphasis on dance, and Bill captures the grace and elegance of dance and the human body beautifully.
The 76-year-old works from his studio in Upper Beaconsfield and has enjoyed creating sculptures and designing for about 40 years.
“I’ve done some members of the Australian ballet quite a number of years ago and I also do female nudes,” Bill said.
“I like it because it’s the age-old thing of trying to depict the human body.”
Two of his sculptures are being featured at the Cardinia Festival, which is happening on 4 December at the Carlei Green Vineyard.
One is called Larissa, which is a life-sized statue based on a 16-year-old girl who is sitting on the ground doing up the laces on one of her ballet shoes.
The other is a female nude standing upright with her hands behind her head and her hair blowing behind her.
He recently had an open exhibition at his studio, which saw people from across Victoria and even Australia gather to check out his artwork.
Bill said he got inspiration from people who were willing to model for him.
“Sometimes I have friends who are only too happy to pose for me and sometimes I have commissions,” he said.
“I have them pose for me and I take lots of photographs from all different directions to depict them from all around – it’s like a painting done from 100 or 500 directions and it gives you something to see as you walk around.”
Making a bronze sculpture is quite a lengthy process, and it’s not just a matter of handling the metal straightaway.
“I make the sculpture in solid wax and if it’s large it has a steel armature,” Bill said.
“The wax is modelled into whatever shape I want and from that I make silicon rubber moulds of each body part. I might cut up a big part into smaller pieces.
“Then I pour rubber into those moulds and pour it out again and once you’ve taken the silicon out it’s more or less like an egg, hollow inside.
“I cast the pieces and assemble and weld them together to finish them.”
The process generally takes him about three months per sculpture, but Bill does many projects at the same time and makes many in a year.
He said there was a reason behind the lengthy process.
“You got to make it like that, otherwise it’s too heavy and the metal wouldn’t cool down properly. All decent sculptures are hollow.”
Despite the effort, Bill said he would continue to pursue his art.
“Artists never give up – they’ve got to create and they get enjoyment from it, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it.”