A Little Company, located in Fayetteville Arkansas creates sculptures which everyone at Studio Seven Arts is talking about - often we see customers smile, laugh, and relating to the pieces. Numerous customers collect them and appreciate them for their realism, expressions, and the pure joy on their faces. Each piece is created from an original clay sculpture. This mold is used to pour resin into and once the resin has hardened each piece is hand-painted. These sculptures are limited edition, numbered, a original artwork by A Little Company.
The creator Shelley Buonaiuto is always striving to create a coherent work of art that captures a quality of presence. The figures laugh and talk with friends, they dance or commune with a lover. She finds sculpting the elderly most interesting, for these have a character in their expressions, the naturalness of their bodies, the skin of aging, the caring expressed in their faces. The joy of living, the laughter on their faces, and the diversity of their expressions are the spirit and body as one. Shelley portrays in her sculptures the acceptance of this life, and people who view the work often find themselves and their friends in the pieces she and creates.
The creative process for Shelley is spontaneous and intuitive, the relationships revealed as she works. Her pieces are always informed, limited, guided, and inspired by the quality of clay and the demands of the technical process. as she sculpts. Most of the clay work is a combination of different colors of stoneware and porcelain and is fired to cone 10, making it very hard and durable. There is some patina and glaze used, and also at times a bronze patina is applied.
Shelley began to produce resin figures in 1996, to create a body of work that was consistent and affordable. She has created a diverse community of figures that could be interchanged, allowing different expressions of relationship. Since she sculpt’s these figures in a non-hardening oil-based clay and the piece is cast, she then is able to work for several months on a piece to capture exactly the expression that speaks to her before they are hand-painted.
We are pleased to have A Little Company in Studio Seven Arts. We ship these pieces all over the United States and Canada In fact, if you see one these figures that reminds you of someone and the hair color or clothing color is different Shelley will be happy to customize those colors so sculpture looks even more like your loved one or friend.
