Austin Weishel | Bronze sculpture artist

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Our Lady of Guadalupe

It is my pleasure to present “Our Lady of Guadalupe.” This sculpture has been incredibly challenging but overwhelmingly rewarding to complete and share with the world.

 

Guadalupe is sculpted as an exact replica of the original iconic painting, to the millimeter. We worked tirelessly to ensure the colors were exactly that of the original as well. Guadalupe stands at 9.5 feet tall and is an immersive viewing journey from all angles of the statue.

Guadalupe is available, as well as the accompanying Juan Diego, in a limited edition, perfect for your church or Parrish.

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Our Lady of Guadalupe

Guadalupe has finished her final patina! This over life size replica of the original Our Lady of Guadalupe historical painting echoes the measurements of the original piece done in 1531. The vivid and saturated colors of Guadalupe are also a replica of her painting, and were created by the patina process.

To color a piece, a bronze sculpture is first heated to around 300 degrees. This allows the pores to bloom just enough for different acrylics and acids to seep into the top layer on the statue. This is where the color comes from! This is different than what you see on a car — which is added only to the surface of a metal — whereas a patina is added deep into the metal. This will add an everlasting color to the sculpture.  Normally, overtime, these colors may blend together and fade, but the color will always be there. For Guadalupe, it was important to me to keep the vivid and original color of the painting, so we also added a lacquer over the colors. This will prevent the color from fading and changing overtime. This process was also added to Juan Diego’s flowers in her accompanying bronze statue.

Guadalupe in her final patina

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Guadalupe

 

Guadalupe is an over-life-size 9.5 foot bronze sculpture that is in the final steps of reaching her completion. When finished, she will be 1000 pounds and have enclosed structural components that will be able to support all of her weight as well as environmental factors, such as strong winds. This piece was sculpted to honor the original Guadalupe, within one millimeter of the original painting.

 Currently, she is in the “metal-chasing” stage of the artistic process, where skilled workers weld the pieces of the sculpture back together to make it appear as though the sculpture was never in pieces before. This is also an interesting and important part of the final stages of completion because texture and detail are added back to the piece, as if it was never welded before. This is crucial to maintaining the artistic expression and integrity of the sculpture as I created it in the beginning stages.

After the laborious process of metal chasing, she will go to coloring. I chose to color her with the original palette of the painting. It is an exciting time when sculptures reach this phase and they begin to come to life.

 

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Guadalupe and Juan Diego

I had the opportunity to sculpt some roses today for a current project that I am working on. It was fun to deter my mind a little and have some fun with creating my own spin on these roses in different shapes and sizes. They are for a religious sculpture that shows Juan Diego kneeling before Guadalupe to give her the roses as he is the first one to discover her.

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  • abweishel@gmail.com

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