Sculptor · Painter — Stellenbosch / Australia
Wildlife in bronze, cast in editions of twelve. Vasbyt — to hold fast to what is disappearing.
It’s not about figures. It’s about feelings, experiences, and memories that last forever.
Cast wild — and made to endure.
A study of one of the earth’s most monumental and most endangered forms, cast in bronze. Each work in the edition is an original casting, finished and patinated by hand.
Accompanied by a signed Certificate of AuthenticityCloser: the surface as it left the foundry, with the signature and date cast into the bronze.
The great tusker in bronze — ears like torn maps, the weight and quiet of the matriarch held in patinated metal. Each work in the edition is an original casting, finished by hand.
Accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity
Caught mid-stride — all muscle and intent, the whole animal balanced on a single moment of movement. Cast in bronze and finished by hand, each work in the edition an original.
Accompanied by a signed Certificate of AuthenticityCloser: every mark in the clay survives into the bronze.
The arch of the neck, the flare of breath — a horse’s head held in bronze, still carrying its motion. Each work in the edition an original casting, finished by hand.
Accompanied by a signed Certificate of AuthenticityWork in progress — editions opening to collectors before the first casting.
Every bronze is cast in an edition of twelve. Each dot on the clock is one casting; a filled dot is a casting already sold. As an edition fills, the price of the next casting steps up — so the earliest collectors hold the lowest numbers.
One studio, four ways in. Each work leaves with its own record of provenance.
A palm-sized bronze study — an eye, a horn, a single gesture. Thirty per animal, never recast.
The tabletop bronzes. Twelve casts per animal, each marked on the edition clock.
Large-scale bronzes in editions of eight, reserved from the maquette before the first pour.
A single work made for one place — an estate, a lodge, a garden, a room.
Each work leaves the studio with a signed, numbered certificate: the work, its casting number, its place on the edition clock, the foundry that poured it, and a link to the film of its making. The record stays with the work, from one collector to the next.
The story of The White Rhino — vasbyt, the Afrikaans word for the will to endure.
My bronzes are cast at SCS Foundry, where each edition is poured and finished by hand. Here, my Leopard takes form.
Every form begins in clay, worked by hand in the studio until the gesture is right.
The finished clay is 3D scanned, capturing every tool mark at full fidelity.
A resin master is printed from the scan — the pattern from which the edition is drawn.
Poured, chased and patinated by hand at SCS Foundry. Each casting an original.
David Francois Rabie works between abstraction with a theatrical sense of movement and realism that breathes life through soulful eyes. His preferred mediums move from ink, charcoal and pencil to vibrant abstract colour — and into bronze.
Drawing primarily from nature and wildlife, he finds his subject in the beauty and majesty of the natural world.
“My life is art.”
He credits his mother, the internationally acclaimed artist Teresa Decinti, for instilling a deep appreciation for the craft — an artistic lineage he proudly carries forward.
The work, at home — in the room, and on the land that shaped it.
A single animal, a private landmark, a piece made for one room and one collector — commissioned from clay to bronze.
Private acquisitions & commissions
Bronze editions and original works, each accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity. Enquiries are answered personally by the studio, for collectors and galleries worldwide.
Each edition runs to twelve and no further. Leave your email to join the collector register. You hear first as editions open, and talismans are offered to the register before anyone else.