Valley CreationsSadly one of our cherry trees had become dangerously likely to split because of bark inclusion. It generated a lot of wood of one sort or another and a pile of wood chip for the garden paths. In amongst that I’m managing to find a toad and lily pads inside the tree remains. To be continued, as the wood dries.
After several years of problems with Arthritis, I’ve been having to reassess some of my creative activities. I’ve given up chair-making, I’m less physical in the garden and sculpture may tail off from now on. I’ve been concentrating on painting but until I joined https://www.shelleyartgroup.com/ I’d been a drifting a bit. Here’s one on Fungi that has been well received:
Here’s one on our obsession with cars that is still ongoing:
I’ve also come to a decision about my involvement with Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I’ve been talking to people about creativity informally at YSP for around 40 years, but around 15 years ago I started taking tours round there, doing the same. Apart from hip replacements I have been doing that ever since till last year. I have tried other roles there but have not been comfortable with them. You have to know your own limitations. So farewell and thanks to all the people who have helped me at YSP over the years. You may see me wandering around chatting to random people or sitting sketching. I still have my own series on trees to fill up and and my very rapid sketch of the herons could do with more care and attention. Sayonara.
My good friend Stephen and I took advantage of the chance to use the studios of David Mayne and Mick Kirby Geddes, to have a play making some sculptures. As usual a great couple of days with some interesting people. Here are the results:
Stephen’s:
Mine:
An enjoyable week down at Westonbirt Woodworks that caused a mix of amusement, admiration and bemusement. I decided to use a mix of existing bits and newly made ones to create a sculpture.
As it developed Paul Hayden likened it to Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, and my brother found a picture of a chair sculpture by the same, that had a resemblance. I decided that this one would be called Les Chaises not least because it is several things at once.
It is actually hard to get angles to work in this way and yet make a stable structure. Where there were imperfections in the wood I drew attention to them. There was a big fault at one side of the seat, so we cut a chunk out, making two different seat shapes in one. Correspondingly there are two different seat carving patterns.
Thanks also to Stephen for his part in my chair adventures and to all those who have encouraged me.
In the beginning there was landscape, then came life, then life developed rituals (Dogs going round in circles before lying down, Elephants visiting the remains of dead relatives), then creatures made things and altered the landscape (nests, burrows, display sites), then humans started taking these things a lot further.
We have been altering the landscape and making art since pre-history. The sculpture park is a piece of altered landscape, that is a display site and a piece of show-off theatre, that is now also a place to see works of art.
I am just about to start giving Art and Landscape tours of the Park again. Here is the old document for the tour. A new one is on its way.
https://valleycreations.me/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/YSP-Talk.pdf
