Latest News
This is the page where I talk a little bit about some of the latest projects which I'm making or am involved with. I hope you like them!
9/3/10
Managed to run a one day carving workshop despite fracturing one elbow and spraining the other arm 6 days previously. A lovely sunny morning to set up in a copse on the edge of Bath certainly helped. On returning home, I found that I have had two sculptures chosen for the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Open exhibition at the RBSA, Brook St. Birmingham UK. Apparently it is the oldest society of artists in Britain so it feels like quite an honour to have been selected. One of the pieces is 'Velocivenator satiei' and the other is the osteotome beetle. There are no finished pictures of the latter online yet as I managed to finish it just in time to take it to Birmingham! Here is a work-in progress picture for you though:
As soon as I return from the exhibition private view there is a meeting to discuss an inscription on an oak bench to go in the National Trust's Leigh Woods site, where I have already carved and constructed a bench last year. Lets hope the arms can hold up okay during this busy week!!
19/2/10
Spent a couple of days this week helping a friend, Nick Snellar, to sculpt a hollow oak tree trunk which is destined to be a play sculpture at the Eden Project in Cornwall. Also, I have just finished two ceramic stamps for Steve Carter (see Here). There has also been a new insect made, photos of which I will post as soon as I can.
31/12/09
Bit of a change to the usual. I have contributed an EP cover for a friend's record which is to be released in February. The EP is called 'Moth in the Motor' by Rachael Dadd and is to be released on Broken Sound Music. As part of the release, the people at Broken Sound have asked for folks to contribute one-off covers, which are to be advertised on their website and also shown at the launch gig for the record at Cafe Oto in Dalston, London in February. If a cover is sold, the profits go back to the artist. My cover (shown below) is a collage, with the moth being made up of salvaged antique wood veneers including beech, sweet chestnut, bubinga and makore. The lettering was done with Letraset inherited from my father. A refreshing change to the sort of things that I usually make and good luck to Rachael with the record.
13/11/09
Just spent the last two weeks carving a commission piece for the back garden of a very nice local family in not-always-very-nice weather. A favourite Robinia tree had to be felled so, rather than removing it altogether, they wanted to have it turned into a sculpture. It is now still a forked tree trunk left standing but has an owl and woodpecker carved into it and a spiral running up the trunk. For more information, click on this link: Garden Sculpture.
Projects currently in the pipeline include:
More ceramic stamps for local ceramicist Steve Carter (see below and links page) as he is very pleased with the others that I have made for him,
A bowl for my friend's fifth wedding anniversary (which is traditionally when wooden gifts are given). For more information and images of the completed bowl, click here
A large sculpture to be used in next year's 'Festival of the Tree' at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. This is one of the biggest national woodworking shows and I have been invited to make a piece for it- for which I feel very honoured. A tulip tree has been felled and a range of makers are to produce very differing items from it's timber, including jewellery, bowls, bespoke fine furniture etc. My piece will probably be along similar lines to the insects and crustacean sculptures which can be seen in the Gallery page, only much larger this time!
Also, I am hopefully going to be carving an interpretation panel from oak for a local mediaeval tithe barn which is being restored in Nailsea. Still early days on that one so far.
Oh, and on top of all this, I'm working one day a week with lads who have been excluded from school, doing a creative woodwork group at the Boiling Wells site in St Werburghs, Bristol. A beautiful oasis of green in the city.
31/8/09
I went up to Westonbirt arboretum in Gloucestershire yesterday to see the 'Festival of the Tree'. The woodworkers cooperative which I'm a member and director of (The Forest of Avon Wood Products) had a stall there with members showing their work, so it seemed a good idea to pop in. It was a very nice show and I spent too much money on new tools, as is to be expected!
The crustacean is going together nicely, as is the bench, although it is far easier to do the former, as I can only just move the smallest components of the latter! There is still a glass case to be made to protect the crustacean sculpture though. There are some images here of work on both of them:
Crustacean in process of construction-the eyes are about 1cm (approx. .33 of an inch)from top to bottom
A carving on the oak bench (see more in the Gallery-theres a link at the bottom of this page)
Grey Dagger moth caterpillar and Lobster moth
caterpillar on oak twig
3/8/09
The crustacean seems to be going well as is the bench. I got news yesterday that my work has been chosen for a project at the prestigious 'Festival of the Tree' at Westonbirt Arboretum next August. A tulipwood tree has been felled and pieces of it are being used by artists and makers to produce a variety of work illustrating the range of woodworking. The chap in charge likes my insects and would like me to be one of those involved. Very good news!
5/6/09
Been a while since the last update, so here goes! Am currently making a carved wooden hunting crustacean that is inspired by a French piano piece. The music is called 'Desiccated embryos' and was written by Erik Satie in the early 20th century. The music's a lot prettier than the name suggests. It is to go in 'Metamarine', the next show from the same group who put on 'Metainsecta' last year at the Centrespace Gallery, Bristol (see Projects and Exhibitions). This new show is going to be at the Grant Bradley Gallery, Bedminster, Bristol from the 7th to the 31st October. We had a good time at the last one, got glowing reviews and about 700 people turned up, so it seemed a great idea to do it again! The work to be submitted is already sounding as good as the last one, if not better.
Work has also begun on the bench for the National Trust in Leigh woods, Bristol. The oak boards have been cut, using a two-person Alaskan chainsaw mill. Next, to clean them up and then begin carving in the beautiful woods.
Also this summer, I'll be hopefully demonstrating on the Forest of Avon stand at Glastonbury festival, the Festival of the Tree and the Big Green Gathering. Come and say hello!
21/3/09
A busy week! Collected my chainsaw license, moved house and finished my proposals for the Stokeleigh camp bench.
19/2/09
I received an image of the piece 'Hinewai calling from the mist' from Paul Deans by email, as well as the Maori folk tale which it is taken from. They are both shown here as the story behind the sculpture is rather lovely too. Thank you Paul!
(Image copyright and courtesy of Paul Deans)
UENUKU AND THE MIST GIRL
"As he walked along the narrow path between the trees, Uenuku stared
at the column of mist standing over the lake. He had often seen mist lying
low over the water but never a column of it standing up like the trunk of
a tall tree. He quickened his step, overcome with curiosity. At the edge of
the forest, close to the beach, he stopped. Two young women were bathing in
the still water. He could see that they were beautiful even through the veils
of mist that wrapped around them like a cloud. Further out the air was clear,
but nearer to the shore everything had turned to the silver in the clinging
cloud. These two women were Hine-pukohu-rangi, the Girl of the Mist and her
sister Hine-wai the Misty Rain Girl. They had come down from the clouds to
bathe in the clear water of the lake.
As he looked at them Uenuku felt a strange sensation come over him. He seemed
to be drawn to them by a powerful force. They looked at him with clear eyes,
unafraid and wondering. Uenuku knelt down at the water’s edge and said
to the Mist Girl, “I am Uenuku. Tell me your name.”
“I am Hine-pukoho-rangi, daughter of the sky. I am the Girl of the Mist”
Uenuku stretched out his arms. “Come and live with me in this world
of light,” he said, “I have never seen a woman as beautiful as
you. I am strong and will take care of you.”>
“I cannot leave my home,” the Mist Girl replied. “Even now
my sister is waiting for me to return.”
“Ah, you will love this world,” Uenuku pleaded. “It is not
cold and empty like the space above. There is fire and warmth here, with the
summer sun shinning through the leaves of the trees and in winter the glowing
fire on the hearth. There are birds and their songs, men and women and their
laughter. Come with me Girl of the Mist.”
She took a step towards him and drew back. “You would not be happy with
me,” she said.
“I would always love you,” Uenuku said simply.
“But you do not understand. I come from the Outer Space, and though
I might spend the night with you, I should have to return to my home in the
heavens as soon as the sky grew light.”
Uenuku was stubborn. “I still want,” he said. “Even though
I shall be lonely through the day, please come and live with me.”
The Mist Girl smiled. “I shall come home with you,” she said.
No one saw Uenuku and his bride as they slipped into the whare when the firelight
glowed in the creeping darkness. No one heard his words of love as he took
her into his arms. In the morning before the sun had risen over the hills,
the Mist Girl met her sister. They seemed to mingle like two clouds and drifted
upwards before the sun’s rays could pierce them.
Every morning the Mist Girl left her husband and every evening she joined
him when the shadows stole across the Marae. As the summer days grew longer
the women began to poke fun at Uenuku.
“You say you have a bride in your whare,” they laughed. “Where
is your bride, Uenuku, this bride we have never seen? Perhaps she is only
a log of wood or a bundle of korari. Show her to us and we will believe you
when you say she is beautiful.”
There was a little time between the sinking of the sun and his rising again.
During the long hours of daylight Uenuku missed the laughter of the Mist Girl
and longed to hear her voice lifted up in song, and to see her take her place
among the poi-dancers.
In the end he could bear the absence of his wife no longer. One day he tied
mats across the windows and pushed moss into the crevices between the planks.
When the door was shut the whare was dark as a moonless night when the clouds
have covered the covered the sky.
That night the Mist Girl entered the whare unsuspecting. The hours of darkness
passed until the first light flushed the eastern sky and the Rain Girl called
to her sister.
“Come, Hine, we must rise up from the earth.”
“I am coming,” the Mist Girl answered and felt round in the darkness
for her cloak.
“What are you doing?” Uenuku asked.
“It is time for me to go.”
“Nonsense,” he replied, pretending to be half-asleep. “Why
are you disturbing me? Look around you there is no light anywhere.”
“But morning must be near. My sister has called to me.”
“Hine-wai is mistaken. Perhaps she has seen the moonlight or the starlight.
There is no light anywhere. Go to sleep again.”
Hine-pukohu-rangi lay down again. “She must be mistaken,” she
said, “but it is strange. I do not understand it. She has never made
such a mistake before.”
The Misty Rain Girl kept calling her and her voice was mingled with the sounds
of the waking birds, but Uenuku maintained that she was mistaken. Presently
she could wait no longer, and the husband and wife heard her voice growing
fainter as she left them.
“I am sure there is something wrong,” the Mist Girl said, suddenly
wide-awake. “Listen I can hear the forest birds singing.”
They listened. Hine-wai had gone but the song of the birds was very loud and
there were voices on the Marae. Hine-pukohu-rangi ran to the door, forgetting
her cloak. She opened it and the broad daylight flooded the whare. She stood
there a moment and a gasp of amazement went up from the people, for the Mist
Girl was so slender and beautiful that no one had ever seen anything so wonderful
before. She did not look as though she belonged to the earth.
Uenuku followed her out, smiling because everyone was envying him his wife.
As he passed through the doorway, Hine sprang onto the roof of the house and
climbed to the ridgepole. Her long hair covered her body.
The exclamations of the people were silenced as she began to sing. It was
a sad song; there was pain in it, and longing, and love for Uenuku. Then a
strange thing happened.
Out of the clear sky a cloud drifted down. It wreathed itself around her,
fold on fold, until she could no longer be seen. Only her voice could be heard
coming from the tiny cloud. Then the song stopped and there was silence. The
cloud drifted away from the roof. It rose upwards, higher and higher, until
it seemed to dissolve in the bright sunshine, which bathed the empty ridgepole
in a glow of golden light.
Uenuku was heart-broken. He could not meet the pitying eyes of his friends.
His whare was cold and cheerless. Night after night he waited for the Mist
Girl to return, but she never came back.
One day he left his home and set out on a long search for his wife. He met
with many adventures and passed through strange countries but no one could
tell him what had become of Hine-puhoku-rangi.
As his search went on, year after year, he grew old and bent and toothless,
and at last, lonely and disappointed, he died in a distant country.
He had paid for his thoughtlessness and pride, and so the far gods of space
took pity on him. They lifted up his old body and changed him into a many-coloured
rainbow and set him in the sky where everyone could see him.
Hine-pukohu-rangi still rises when the sun comes over the hills and warms
the damp earth, while Uenuku, the shining rainbow, circles his lovely wife
with a band of glowing colour."
10/2/09
Got an email from the NZ sculptor Paul Deans yesterday. Eleven years ago, I saw a carving of his called 'Hinewai calling from the mist' in a gallery in a town in New Zealand called Akaroa. It made a big impression on me and influenced many subsequent carvings but over the years I forgot the sculptors name. Just on the off chance, I emailed the Akaroa tourist office giving the tiny scraps of information that I remembered (the piece's title, where the gallery was and the rough date that I saw it). Amazingly, Maryn Curry managed to find out for me not only Pauls name and website address but also the name of the gallery. The owner of the gallery now owns the piece. Well done and thank you to Maryn and yet again the internet amazes me.
5/2/09
Currently, one of the most exciting upcoming potential projects is to design and make a bench to be sited in September at Stokeleigh Camp, in Leigh Woods. This is a beautiful National Trust owned Iron Age hill fort in woodland overlooking the Avon Gorge in Bristol. The bench will be made from oak which has been felled in the same woods. It will reference the history of the area, the local celtic tribes and the donation of the hillfort to the National Trust by the Wills family in 1909. A great chance to get stuck into some research resulting, hopefully, in a really interesting final piece.
Next week, spurred on by the job above, I'll be doing a course which wil lead (after passing an assessment exam!!) to getting a chainsaw license which will enable me to do chainsaw carving legally on other peoples land. Very exciting!
I've also been offered a commission to produce one-off woodblock stamps for local ceramicist Steve Carter. The boxwood stamps will last well and Steve has said that he finds them a pleasure to use.
After the great success of the 'Metainsecta' show, another is in the pipeline. Provisionally entitled 'Meta aquatica' it is still very much in the planning stages, but watch this space! Work has already started on a strange hunting crustacean sculpture.
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