Willy Verginer, is an Italian sculpture who hails from Ortisei, a town in one of Italy’s most historic provinces, Tyrol. His artworks are mainly figurative sculptures made purely from wood, but often mistaken as stone carvings or a chunk of plaster moulded into lifesize forms. Actually such impression gives credence to Willy Verginer’s techniques.

First off, he processes carvings of human or animal figures only from blocks of wood that have been dried naturally for more than six years to ensure morphing will not occur. He then conceptualizes images that convey subtle messages with the help of a trusty hatchet and chainsaw, and then refines the features using chisels and small tools, to create a realistic looking lifesize figurine.

Yet what makes master sculptor Verginer’s work standout, aside from the precision by which he chisels out folds, wrinkles and creases of imaginary flesh and textile, are the touches of acrylic colour he adds to each sculpted wood.

Willy Verginer’s Sculptures Come Alive with Application of Acrylic Color

The most eye-catching quality of a Willy Verginer sculpture is his application of a band of acrylic color, which gives a concept of time, location or specific idea to the figurine. A band of color can be anything; orange, blue, green, black, gold, silver, whichever hue can depict an unseen location or condition in which the sculpted figure is situated.

One of the most striking Verginer sculpture exemplifying the concept is that of a child painted in blue to make him look as if swimming in a body of water. Another is a figurine of a man trying desperately to solve a leakage of some hazardous silver metallic substance coming out of a container, to which the mercurial silver color has already seeped and spread to the man.

Willy Verginer’s actual sculptures are on display in numerous private and public Italian and international art galleries. Photographed collections of his most stunning sculptures can be viewed at his website.