Binkley Commissioned to Create Sculpture for Tuscan Villa

In October 2024, at a lovely cocktail party, a new commission gestated.

Michelle and I were invited to a reunion of Keg restaurant colleagues of 38 years ago (Michelle’s crew, not mine as I never worked as a waiter). The host and hostess of the party had gone on to develop several successful businesses, raise a lovely family and are now building their legacy for future generations. 

One project is to renovate a large Tuscan villa property for their family and friends. Michelle said they needed a handsome Carrara marble Binkley sculpture to grace the villa. They said, yes we do! And based upon the success of our sculpture commission for the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore that year, our patrons had the confidence we could deliver.

In April 2025, we had a private audience with them to discuss the project. We decided on a budget, timeframe, location within the villa and the idiom of an abstract sculpture. We also decided that since the sculpture was destined for an Italian location, it would be best for me to produce the artwork in Italy. Sort of a “bring Mohammad to the mountain” kind of thing. So I commenced exploring ideas through loose sketches with the goal of narrowing to a final idea. During this period, I sent digital sketches to them (they travel extensively, so in-person meetings would be very difficult) and they responded with their comments. This is the wonderful collaboration aspect of a fine art commission that Michelle and I enjoy.

After several attempts, I was not really hitting the emotional mark. Suddenly, they veered and asked about the subject of an angel. This image is profoundly personal and spiritual to the couple and they showed us a large wooden representational angel sculpture they had purchased for the villa. I suggested a companion piece angel sculpture in Carrara marble and they loved the idea.

After a few more sketches, they approved me to advance to the next stage, which was to produce a scale model. This I accomplished in virtual space, using a digital sculpting program called ZBrush on my computer. This is the final version of the model. I was able to paint it to look like real marble, to assist our patrons to imagine the final sculpture.

I imported the model into 2D architectural renderings of the room in the villa the angel was to go. I sent a 3D version to the architect, so he could add the sculpture to the 3d renderings to show the couple. They gave final approval to move to the next stage – the actual carve!

Michelle and I traveled to Italy in June 2025, to interview some studios who could assist us in the selection of material and begin to rough out the sculpture. We decided on Studio Sem. This is where Michael first went to rent studio space in Pietrasanta to start four major sculpture commissions in 2006 and returned again in 2008 for another gig. So we have a relationship with this studio and were confident they could help us with this project.

The director of Studio Sem assisted in sourcing the block of marble. She suggested a bright white version of Carrara bianco ordinario and found a sound block of this material for us. This was cut to size with large circular saws.

Then the profile was established using a computer assisted wire saw. Once the large “blank” was cut out, we could move on to the rough-out stage.

Traditionally, Italian studios like Sem provide the service of pointing up marble sculptures from artist’s submitted models. The sculptures can be partially, or fully completed by artigiani (Italian for craftsmen), human carvers who are trained for this work. As I have been primarily a direct stone sculptor for most of my career (meaning I carve directly into a block of stone without a prior model), this process of pointing up from a model is relatively new for me. But instead of using the service of human artigiani, I opted to submit my digital model to the studio so that a mechanical CNC carving robot did the rough work. It is the same process, except a machine does the carving, instead of a human.

Michelle and I arrived at Studio Sem (now located in the countryside outside Pietrasanta) on January 26, 2026 to find my seven foot tall sculpture standing in the studio on a turntable, ready for me to do the final finishing. The sculpture was nearly carved, but one can see that the details of the composition are a little murky, as if a fine veil was covering it. This is where my human hands using my carving and finishing tools are needed to complete the artwork.

I was pleased that my efforts in the modelling stage were well executed. Sometimes, a composition looks great on a 14” computer screen, but looks horrid enlarged. There were details I needed to correct at scale, but for the most part, the composition was on point. Here are some detail shots of the tiny step-over final cuts made by the CNC robot. It was able to cut my sculpture to within 1mm of the final surface!

It was not, however, perfect, so I had to do some adjustments to some surfaces. For instance, I sculpted the primary and secondary covert wing feathers (I fashioned the angel’s wings after classic art imagery of bird wings) as arcs inside each wing and these needed to be more defined. I did this with my carbide die grinder. You can also see how the grain of the marble is enhanced after sanding the surface.

The back and outside edge of each wing needed to be faired, so I accomplished this with a combination of diamond angle grinder and carbide abrasive disks. I am only 5’7′ tall, so I needed a boost to reach the top portion of the seven foot tall sculpture!

I smoothed all the sculpture’s surfaces to a silky, fair-curved finish. I used a pencil and crayon to show the places I had not sanded, as it is difficult to see the difference between finished and unfinished areas on white marble! This was done all by hand, with me rubbing back and forth on all the surfaces which took days to complete.

I was very pleased to see a detail of the sculpture that was enhanced at scale. While I was very careful with the digital sculpting process on my computer, the wonderful undulating and opposing curved edges and surfaces that define the tops of the angel’s wings, her genuflecting head and locks of hair all flowed together and look extremely pleasing in enlarged real marble!

Our patrons came to Studio Sem to see the final sculpture and thankfully they gave their thumbs up approval! So I signed the sculpture and took some final photos of it. Unfortunately, there are only florescent lights in the studio, so I had to be creative with late afternoon daylight to sidelight the sculpture for drama.

The sculpture will now be crated and transported to the patron’s villa in Tuscany, which is between Florence and Siena. We will not see the sculpture in situ, as the villa is still being renovated and the sculpture will have to remain in storage on their property until later this year. However, Michelle and I have plans to return to Tuscany next year, so we hope we can get to see it in it’s final location then.

This has been a fabulous sculpture commission to work on, and I am honoured this couple had faith in me to compose and execute this original Carrara marble sculpture for their art collection for their new home in Tuscany, Italy.