Ann MacNaughton Bronzes On Display At The Library

By Jan Howard

Horses, a fox, a cow, dogs, and a child are among the subjects in a collection of exquisite bronze sculptures by longtime Newtown artist and sculptor Ann MacNaughton on display in the C.H. Booth Library on Main Street.

The sculptures are exhibited in the display case near the elevator on the first floor, just past the children’s library.

Mrs MacNaughton began sculpting her bronze creations because, she said, “I couldn’t afford to buy them. I decided to make the horses and foxes. I saw them in sporting galleries. They’re terribly expensive to buy. Today I can’t afford to create them.

“I’ve been an oil painter all my life,” Mrs MacNaughton said. “Sculpture is something I added to my creativity. I never stopped creating.”

A bronze sculpture can take up to two months to complete, Mrs MacNaughton said.

“The idea starts with a clay piece, which you work on until you have completed your idea,” she explained. “Then you hollow it out so it’s no more than ½ inch thick.

“It’s a lot to do, but it will explode if you don’t take out the inner parts,” she said.

Once the clay piece is completed, it is fired in a kiln. From this, a mold is made, into which wax is poured, and the mold removed. The wax figure is encased in a ceramic material, inside and out. Under high heat the wax is melted out, and in its place bronze is poured in, Mrs MacNaughton explained.

When it cools, the ceramic mold is removed, and, “There’s your bronze figure,” she said.

Mrs MacNaughton and her husband, James, an architect, have been residents of Newtown for 12 years. They moved here from Fairfield, where they had lived for 33 years. They have three daughters.

Mrs MacNaughton has spent most of her artistic life as a painter. Though she started out painting portraits of children, she prefers animals as subjects for both paintings and sculptures, particularly foxes, dogs, and horses, all of which she has personally owned at one time or another.

“I thoroughly enjoy doing animals,” she said. “I’ve always had animals.”

She said her family had horses for years, and she fox hunted until someone pointed out a fox in a pet store, which she then adopted. “It was our favorite animal,” she said.

 Mrs MacNaughton received a degree in fine arts from Syracuse University. Fourteen years ago, she studied sculpture in Pietrasanta, Italy, as part of a group. “It was a wonderful time,” she said.

In 1990, three of Mrs MacNaughton’s sculptures were exhibited as part of the Bleifeld Sculpture Association group showing at Lever House in New York City.

Mrs MacNaughton studied for ten years with Stanley Bleifeld, an internationally known, award-winning sculptor. Among his creations is the “Lone Sailor” in Washington, DC.

Unfortunately, eight years ago, after 20 years of creating them, Mrs MacNaughton stopped producing bronze sculptures because of their cost.

“Bronzes are very expensive to make. They took a long time to sell, and I would have too many unsold,” Mrs MacNaughton said. “It was too heavy an expense to carry. I sold all but a few through a Woodbury gallery, and haven’t gone back to it.” Galleries can take up to 50 percent of the purchase price as commission, she noted.

A contributing factor to not continuing the sculptures was the closing of the Bridgeport foundry where her bronze works were produced. Most bronze sculptures now come from the west, where most of the foundries are located, she said. Because of the distance she lives from a foundry, Mrs MacNaughton said it would be difficult to monitor the firing process and make corrections or changes as she had always done locally.

She has returned to her lifelong pursuit of painting because the initial expense of a painting is low.

 “I have a lovely big studio with a cathedral window. I spend days in there painting,” she said.

While she doesn’t paint every day, when she does she paints for four to five hours at a time. “Sometimes I can hardly wait to get to a painting to work on it,” she said. “I love doing paintings of animals. Every one is a new challenge.”

 She matches the frame to a painting as she is working on it. “If the frame isn’t right, the picture isn’t right,” she said. “I can’t finish a painting without having the frame already matched.”

She often works from photographs she has taken of dogs and puppies. “Sometimes I take three rolls of film, 108 pictures of a puppy.” Then, when she doesn’t have a commission, she picks one of the photographs and paints it.

“I might get three paintings from pictures of one puppy,” she said.

Mrs MacNaughton has exhibited in shows with other artists, but sells her paintings through galleries, such as the Cavalier Gallery in Greenwich and Sporting Gallery in Middleburg, Va. One of her pieces was once exhibited in an art show at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

Mrs MacNaughton’s collection of  sculptures will be on display in the library until June 1.