William Sharles Original Bronze Sculpture Lily Pad With Alligator

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"Lily Pad with Alligator"
Original Bronze Sculpture
by William Sharles
Hand signed by the artist
21" High x 16" x … Read more "Lily Pad with Alligator"
Original Bronze Sculpture
by William Sharles
Hand signed by the artist
21" High x 16" x 6"
Unique one of a kind sculpture
100 percent guarantee of authenticity
Art Condition: Good Condition, minor handling marks on wood Base
Gallery Retail is $4,500.00
Certificate of Authenticity and appraisal is included.

BIO FOR SHARLES 1940 -2023

Sharles was born in in Italy of American parents on their honeymoon while visiting European relatives. The family was forced to sit out the war in Britain, and when the war ended, traveled home. But the transition to post-war United States was not an easy one. His parents divorced, leaving a 5 year-old Sharles to be raised by various relatives in a sparse ranching/farm environment of Colorado and Wyoming.

This early childhood led Sharles to believe he was born in that rural area for most of his adult life. His parents wanted to forget, and erase all memories of the war experiences and lacking the long lost Italian birth papers enrolled him in school via borrowed credentials and name of a near cousin. Art collectors, artists, friends, and the world, only know him today by his signature and professional art name of “SHARLES”.

At the age of 10, his Boston grandmother removed him from the Midwest, not wanting her grandson to become a cowboy. She was a stylish, sophisticated widow, self-made businesswoman who was a very successful art and antique dealer to wealthy East Coast collectors.

Sharles spent his teens immersed in the totally different world of Boston and foreign travel, art museums, and his grandmother’s art business. He assisted his grandmother in her antique store, and on buying trips to India, France, Italy, China, and Japan. In addition to his own cultural heritage of English, French, and Italian art, he was immersed in many other cultures and educated about the antiques and decorative arts associated with his grandmother’s business.

His grandmother was a passionate collector of art and loved flowers. These were common interests shared with her best friend, Grace Wedgwood who was related to the famous English Wedgwood pottery family. Grace Wedgwood was Sharles’ Godmother. These two loving guardians took an active role in his education, privately tutoring him on trains, ocean liners, and in hotel rooms. Sharles received a rare education in the techniques, forms, and artistic values of the decorative arts that were intrinsic to the famed Wedgwood pottery. Both his grandmother and godmother were dedicated collectors of Wedgwood, oriental bronzes, porcelains, flower paintings, Italian and French art. These experiences constituted a rich and enduring art education that in time were major influences in his art.

The daily contact with art and flowers became embeded in Sharles’ physic, and would later come to his aid and ultimate rescue. In 1982 he suffered a serious car accident in Loveland, Colorado, a small farming community. Left as a semi-invalid with almost total amnesia, Sharles struggled to recover. He was stranded, not knowing his past, home, or friends.

While recovering in Loveland, which had a small bronze foundry, Sharles began observing some of the local sculptors, George Lundeen, Fritz White, Danny Ostermiller, Glenna Goodacre, and Kent Ullberg. He gradually began picking up sculpting techniques and learned the casting process. At first, Sharles created the type of western images that were being produced by the other local artists: Indians, eagles, buffaloes, and other western genre.

But one auspicious day while sculpting, Sharles surrendered to the intense pressures of his unremembered past. His subconscious adoration of flowers, plants and nature, so strongly instilled by his deceased grandmother, became dominant themes. These memories were his inspiration in creating functional and decorative arts as he discarded the local, popular art trends.

Not knowing if it could even be done, Sharles began experimenting with creating iris flowers in soft wax. He attempted to sculpt delicate flower shapes with wet clay techniques, as the Wedgwood potters had done. Sharles attached these flowers to functional forms, creating extraordinary floral vases, candlesticks, elaborate candelabras, bowls and other types of vessels. The inspiration of his sculptural style remained a mystery to Sharles for many years as it had all flowed so effortlessly from his mind through his hands.

The bronzes were finished with patinas that were bright natural colors of greens, golds, pinks, and purples that seemed to surprise and even shocked the art world. So much so, that major galleries were afraid of the purple, blue green patinas and reluctant to show them, having no sales record by which to judge them. After all, their collectors were buying classic wildlife and Western art in the customary French-brown patinas.

For three years, Sharles continued to add to his decorative portfolio, waiting for the right gallery to represent him. Finally, Pam Driscoll, of the Driscoll Gallery, saw this new work at SCULPTURE IN THE PARK art show. Famous wildlife sculptor Sandy Scott was instrumental in convincing Pam to show his work in her aspen Gallery and with hesitation, agreed to show four or five pieces in her gallery. She was astonished when all five bronzes sold as they were being unpacked. Women loved the colorful, decorative bronzes. Word spread of the immediate sales in Driscoll Gallery, and Sharles soon had more galleries contacting him for his floral decorative work than he could handle.

In 1987 Sharles was accepted into the 3rd Annual Loveland Sculpture in the Park Show. It was a small event organized by local peer artist, George Lundeen, Dan Ostermiller, George Walbye, Fritz White, and Hollis Wilford. It has since become the most important national sculpture show in the United States. For 23 years, Sharles has participated in this annual juried show of nationally, celebrated sculptors.

In 1990, Sharles was one of the many highly talented sculptors from Loveland invited to participate in the Continental Airline’s Sculpture Showcase. It was a show that would tour the major international airports across the United States for three years. This event exhibited the top sculptors from Loveland: Kent Ullberg, George Lundeen, Fritz White, Hollis Wilford, Steve Kestrel, and other promising artists. Other important sculptors would be added as it progressed through the country. Sharles was also delegated with the honor of sculpting a bronze centerpiece for the opening night. With the loosely stated theme of “flight”, the requested sculpture seemed of little significance in light of the high caliber of art being showcased.

With only three weeks to complete, it was an inspired rush-job. The centerpiece created was a 5 1/2 foot totem-like structure of turtles, iguanas, and birds, crowned with the head of a Native American. The sculpture symbolized man learning the principles of flight from gliding sea turtles, and birds that had evolved from dinosaurs and reptiles. The piece, “Evolution of Flight,” was so successful opening night that it was given a place in the traveling sculpture show. This showstopper, exotic piece, amazed and awed viewers, but none more so, than the airline that had anticipated seeing an French brown eagle, or some historical rendition of Kitty Hawk.

Both the “Evolution of Flight” sculpture and the traveling show solidified the career of Sharles as a professional sculptor almost over night. He had embarked on both projects as a totally unknown artist and had revealed just a tip of the iceberg. Galleries and collectors took notice. In 1996 the March issue of Southwest Art Magazine published a sizeable article followed by a similar piece in May/June 1998 Art of the West Magazine.

The Art Council of the Cerritos, California commissioned Sharles in 1998 to sculpt a major public art installation for the front of the new public library. They wanted a bronze of a giant, red amaryllis flower and purple lotus flowers incorporated into a 12 foot multi-piece water fountain. There were nearly 40 sculptures of amaryllis flowers, lotus flowers, lily pads and oversized frog, swan, gold fish and turtle in the completed fountain that was installed in front of the new library.

In 2006, Sharles was commissioned by the city of Loveland, Colorado to create two, circular, 32″ bas-relieves of California quail, pear cacti, lizards, sunflowers, and birds for placement in the famous Benson Park Sculpture Garden. In 2008, he was again commissioned by the city of Loveland to sculpt a small 12″ x 12″ bas relief for the 25th anniversary of Sculpture in the Park Show. The sculpture, “The Music Of spring,” is installed in Benson Park as part of the permanent city art collection

In spite of serious attempts to attend various academic art schools, those intentions never seemed to be a realistic option. In time, art schools no longer seemed necessary, as Sharles had become a successful, self-taught artist/sculptor, learning skills the hard way, by observation, and trial and error. Sharles is also a member of the SOCIETY OF ANIMAL ARTISTS.

He is a self-taught sculptor and oil painter, having drawn in pastels from an early age. His love of color is evident in his still lives of flowers, fruit, parrots, and small wildlife. His oil paintings and sculptures share similar themes. Sharles inherited his grandmother’s love of flowers, and continues creating beautiful art for the sake of beauty.

In addition to sculpting & painting, Sharles was a product designer of pillow, stationary, household items, coffee mugs and a digital artist, nature photographer, in general a computer geek. See less