David Trotter Leather Design

An experimental piece I based on a common barnyard in the early morning.

A scene in pinks and plum on a textured leather background. The barns barely dimensional over the textured pink dawn.

…what is going on in the barnyard in the early pre-dawn light?

Raised textured dimensional leather sculpture.

Made from a single piece of vegetable tanned cowhide, wet molded with the naturally eroded granite of the Canadian Shield as a form and my feet as the pressure source.

This piece is colored with acrylic paints rubbed into and brushed on the surface and allowing the raised bumps and hollows to direct the paint flow.

Pink and aqua colours suggest the expanse of space or the depths of the ocean with bubbles of light glinting or the milky way stretching out into the void.

A sudden pulse of energy or light speed object pierces the dark…

Heavily textured leather, formed on weathered granite and used as canvas for acrylic painting.

This piece is part of a series called ‘Skylight’ based on early morning light.

This was inspired by sunrise on a winter morning woodland walk.

A small piece (approx. 12" x 15") with integral black leather frame that the barn emerges from.

Based on several similar barns in the central Ontario region circa 1800-1850 that I photographed over many years. Not a particular barn but a certain style. Many of these old barns were built in relatively unproductive areas and have since fallen into disuse and disintegration.

I like the juxtaposition of the modern round bale in the foreground against the old style stone foundation. This was one of a series of smaller pieces I began constructing in 2017.

This is a commission piece ordered as a birthday present, finished and delivered in early 2018.

Constructed of thin hardwood plywood with a skin of various textured layers of vegetable tanned cowhide.

I was working with both new and old photos of this BC family farm. Family members provided answers to questions I had regarding construction and actual materials used in various parts of the barn, or details I couldn't make out in the photos.

I tried to capture the sense of the barn and silo and the relationship of each to the hay bale elevator which was the one common detail over the years. Even the wooden silo is no longer in existence, only in the pictures and the families collective memories.

Wet molded piece of vegetable tanned cowhide leather, formed on the rough eroded natural granite of the Canadian Shield.

The colors are hand rubbed acrylic paint.

The arcs are hand pinched in the wet leather making them rough and irregular reminiscent of a turned furrow in a plowed field.

We watch through the wood framed window as the shadows lengthen over the landscape and the sun glints on water…

Constructed of wet formed cowhide on plywood with acrylic paint rubbed into the surface.

This barn is not any barn in particular. It is a lot of details from barns I have known and loved and photographed over the years.

It reminds me of the barns around the area where I grew up and may have played in, as a kid and of some of the barns in the area where I now live.

This relic is falling into disrepair, as many are in the age of the industrial farm.

Not shown, rusted barrel in the corner with curious crow peering into the murky water.

Weathered wooden door to the stable at the side of the barn.

The glass in two panes is cracked.

This door is well worn and well used.

There is an iron ring on the wall to hold the leads on a horse.

Everything you see on this piece is made of cowhide leather including the iron ring and the rusted door handle.

Materials: Vegetable tanned cowhide on plywood, wet formed and colored with acrylic paints

A style of sculpture I call two and a half dimensional.

This piece depictis a typical old Ontario farm that has been left to slowly sink into the ground as the family farm becomes a distant memory.

I worked from memory and various pictures I have taken, as it did not have to represent an actual existing farm, but a typical barn, tractor and windmill that one finds throughout the Ontario countryside.

This piece was started several years ago and got put aside for a while while I worked on expanding my studio space.

I used to drive past the lovely group of buildings on my way into town. One day as I was nearly finished the piece I drove into town and I was shocked to see they were all gone. Not a trace left of their existence. Even the hole in the ground where they had been was filled over. It was a very unsettling experience.

I came home and spent the next few days finishing this piece, using the photos that I had taken over the years.

I love the shape and scale of these buildings and the positioning of them in relation to one another is very pleasing.

Formed and painted vegetable tanned cowhide, textured by wet forming on natural eroded granite of the Canadian Shield. This is a very textural piece with a Georgian Bay theme.

Having spent my childhood summers on the rocky pine treed islands of Georgian Bay, it is a favourite subject of mine.

A photo from a friend of an early morning scene in Southwestern Ontario, inspired this piece. I had been trying to create scenes that had a less ‘accurate’ colouring of the buildings and other elements, and this photo was perfect as the early morning sky and a mist over the landscape had rendered everything a soft faded look.

So the barns ended up being a soft light pink/lavender color rather than dark grey. The sky is an incredible yellow fading to grey/white with orange clouds and the immediate trees in the foreground are silhouetted in a very dark charcoal grey/ black.

This is a turning point for me in my ‘barns and landscapes’ pieces.

A commissioned sculpture completed in early 2020, ‘Jo-Lin Station’ was a great challenge to make and provided me with many interesting problems requiring creative solutions. In the end it is one of the most satisfying pieces I have done in a while. The client, was very happy with the final result.

Size: 28” x 38” x 3” thick