Welcome
Paul Douglas Wegner attended college in Los Angles, California. For five years, he served a sculptural apprenticeship, gaining the technical knowledge he heeded to produce his works. Paul has developed a mastery of the art of bronze sculpture. Each of his works is uniquely and painstakingly cast using the *lost-wax process. Each is made of a special bronze created specifically to meet Wegner’s needs for the right patination and surface quality. The sculptures are then mounted on preselected bases – black walnut or cherry from Wegner’s own property in the Blue Ridge Mountains, marble from Pietra Santa.
The bronzes we have in this collection are from the collection of Bob Knight in Charleston, West Virginia. In the middle of the 1970’s Paul was living in Virginia and Bob met Paul at an art show, and then they became friends. Later Paul moved to California and they stayed in contact. Bob very much wanted Paul to be very successful. In 1981 Bob Knight opened Second Market LTD, organized with a single purpose: to create an auction market for the sculptures of Paul D. Wegner (not the works that are still available from Mr. Wegner but the sold-out editions). Second Market Ltd contacts know owners of related sculptures and inquires if they are either selling or buying. Bonafide offers will be relayed through the newsletter with a view to Second Market LTD. acting a broker.
The majority of the bronzes in this collection are from 1978 to the through 1980’s.
*A brief explanation of the lost wax process:
- A flexible rubber mold is made to capture every detail from Wegner’s original sculpture.
- Molten wax is poured into the rubber mold producing a faithful casting of the sculpture.
- When the wax casting is removed from the mold it is hand finished to perfectly match the original.
- Wax rods called gates are applied to the wax casting which allows the wax to be removed and funnels called sprues are attached to receive the molten bronze.
- The wax casting is coated with several layers of a liquid refractory ceramic, creating a stable mold which is allowed to cure for several days.
- The ceramic mold is fired in a kiln which bakes the ceramic and burns out the wax, leaving a cavity in its place. Thus the term, Lost Wax.
The ceramic mold is then filled with a molten bronze at a temperature of 2100 degree Fahrenheit. After the bronze has cooled, the ceramic mold is carefully broken away revealing the sculpture within. Fine sand particles propelled by air pressure are used to remove the last traces of ceramic that adhere to the bronze. The gates and sprues are cut away from the sculpture and these areas are blended into the casting. The bronze is then treated with chemicals and heat to give it the chosen color according to the Wegner’s specifications. This patination is a unique part of the finished sculpture.
Paul Wegner: “My work is not abstract in the sense that the viewer must stretch his imagination to understand what he sees. I attempt to take recognizable human forms and by mu use of detail expression and body movement, tell a story – a story which each viewer may then interpret on his own.
In life, the body and the mind, in a given environment, work as one. When this oneness can be shown in a sculpture, then a beautiful art form is achieved.
Man must live in concert with nature – sometimes struggling with it, sometimes in simple harmony with it – but always a part of it. This is what I attempt to capture in my work.”
