Balinese Wood Sculpture

Using the most basic of tools most of these sculptures were created from wood of local trees and the Master sculptor belonged to a line of wood sculpture artists from The Ubud Bali Area. The subject matter were mostly human as well as animal forms most of which found their way to European countries.

What is most relevant in learning after witnessing the amount of work and the dedication poured into it by the Artisans who chisseled, scraped and sand papered away all day long in the effort to produce a pice of sculpture is the fact that although it may seem like just another form of earning a living for these workers it was done with enthusiasm and care. They were not doing anything special but merely putting in day's work but this is the spirit that any good artist should emulate, nothing special just doing a day's work. The creative thought has been put into the work by the sculptor and all there is to do is to bring it into manifestation, to bring out the form from the raw piece of wood. This has to be executed almost effortlessly, with natural instinct born from experience through repetition and mindfulness invovlvement.

If there is anything that the Balinese Artists are great at that would be sculpture in wood and stones. All over the island one cannot fail to come across one form of wood or stone sculpture whether in the form of deities and demigods or simply animals of all kinds. Whether in the temple yard or in small gardens, in boutiques as a part of the decor or in the corner of coffee shop as a simple shrine to some unkown spirit. Sculpture is a part of the Balinese way of life and culture so much so that nothing is impossible to be depiced in sculpture form and no size too big or too small so long as there is he means and the price to do it. There is ample enough of subject matter from devine to the comical, from the sophisticated human forms to the simple monkey forms to make up for subject matter.
One of the boys at the 'Senang Hati Foundation' an art shop located on Jalan Raya Ubud Gianyar, in Ubud, who would took me around on his motorbike was Komang who is also a very good wood sculpture and specializes in creating horses. He worked without any form of reference or drawing and what he produced was as accurate as a horse can be. He took me to one of the major wood sculpture shop along the road on the way to the Goa Gajah, called Budi Abstrak run by I Nyoman Widarta a master sculptor. I had a good visit with Mr. Widarta about his works and the business in general. He was a ver y low key kind of person who despite his enormous talent for the medium of sculpture in wood was most humble and unpretentious.
His warehouse cum sculpture shop was full of works of art that could easily fetch a handsome price anywhere in the world and they do. Sadly though it the prioce of shipping them abroad that eats up at the cost and understably so as sculptures tends to be heavy and occupy space when considered for delivery like to Europe or Japan. A huge piece sat in the corner collecting dust. It was sculpted out of the base of a tree trunk and had all kinds of creatures including horses engraved into it and it wad sold to and Englishman but is still pending delivery. As I look around the cluttered space filled with all kinds of imagnable sculpture i wondered what this man would become if he were to teach in Malaysia at an Art school. Most probably he would simply settle for a few pieces a year and be happy to get his salary every end of the month giving himself excuses like everyone else that he has no time for it. Here he produces througfh his employees these out of sight pieces like they oozes out of his brain daily.