Category: Sculpture

Categories
Art Sculpture

Renewed Creativity and an Ending

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.

Categories
Art Garden Sculpture

Spring and flowers and old friends come back to life

Flaky Bark Cherry
Restored Owl
Owl and Garden Guardian

Categories
Garden Sculpture

What a difference the light makes

Morning Alliums and Roses
The light pops round the house
Late afternoon shadows
The early Autumn sun on the way down
Categories
Sculpture

A Day Out at Sculpture Lounge

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:

Categories
Sculpture

Metal Animals Invade Bristol

Categories
Chairs Sculpture

Is it a Chair?

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.

Categories
Art Sculpture

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

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

Categories
Garden Sculpture

Carving, Visitors and Sorting

There is a sycamore tree down the garden that was built into the platform. Now we have a bigger variety of native trees, we have decided to try to stop the sycamore growing and give the others more chance. It is currently turning into a carved pole with a tawny owl at the top. Having had fewer pheasants over the summer, a family of six suddenly appeared and have been back all the time since. In such a big garden it is often hard to keep up with general maintenance, especially when health problems interfere, Now we have some help and have started to catch up again, cleaning and retreating decks steps and home made furmiture.
Categories
Garden Sculpture

Wildlife and Sculpture

I decided that Ruth had made a nice sculpture combining a plea for peat free compost and a protest about plastic bags.
Categories
Garden Sculpture

To See or not to See

Before the gardeners arrived
Garden View
Garden September 2020
Seated Man detail
What are you looking at?

Designing a garden, painting or sculpture, or even looking at one, involves choices. Do you open everything up to view straight away or do you keep some things temporarily hidden? Do you make it obvious or do people have to make an effort?

Today I had a quick wander round YSP to see some spots I haven’t visited in a while and it made me think about layers of vision.

Sometimes people ask about the views in our garden and the top two pictures here illustrate how it has changed. In the first, you can see hills beyond clearly, but there is nothing really in the foreground to hold your eye. In the second, the foreground is so complicated that it is possible not to notice the hills. The foreground now has its own layers of detail and hints of other views. To see the hills more clearly you have to walk down to the shelter that can just be seen bottom right in the second picture. The whole picture has become richer.

Similarly with the Seated Man sculpture from YSP. It is often depicted from the side or three quarter front, giving a clear view of who it is. While I was up there today. I noticed that the man is actually not looking at YSP at all, but at Emley Moor mast, which adds a new dimension to the thoughtful face on the sculpture. Similarly, if you pause and look closely, you can see the hairs on the man’s chest, which takes some doing in a huge solid object like that. The level of detail in this representational piece is there to make you think about the object in a more complex way.

The sculpture itself takes some effort to get to as well. I used to point people to a previous sculpture on this spot from right across the valley, but, despite its size, you can’t really spot this one easily from that far away. This means that like the garden and YSP itself, you have to walk around and give it time to disccover more.