Blog
Spring Welcome
Yesterday it said on my calendar Spring Begins – hurrah! Happy Springtime everyone
Lastingham in the UK Heritage Awards
Last week the prestigious ceremony in London of the UK Heritage Awards 2018 named its winners. The awards recognise the best places to stay, finest historic houses, gardens, museums and heritage sites in the UK. Castle Howard in North Yorkshire was the winner of the Great Places to Eat award, but so well […]
Cadeby Stem Vase
I’m going ahead anyway with thoughts of spring – it has turned distinctly cold with bitter wind here after half a day of warming sunshine earlier in the week. Birdsong encourages my belief that the seasons are shifting! I’ve been making some Cadeby vases, so at least some uplifting spring stems can be brought […]
Sight and Touch
It seems strange to me, but art history is littered with debate surrounding the idea that painting was better than sculpture. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be an issue today, at least I’ve never felt a lesser artist because I carve stone! Indeed, some painters describe their work as sculpture – art, craft, creativity […]
Cautious Catkins
Twigs of hazel and willow are bursting with catkins in my hedgerow – the downy hanging flowers are soggy in the heavy mist and low cloud, but I’m rejoicing their bravery and droops of spring feeling colour. I heard curlews yesterday too. Of course it’s been a celebratory weekend, with Mother’s Day – thankyou […]
In the workshop today – a Kingfisher
Carving a Kingfisher – Kingfisher in mind – azure and rufous, fast low flying over the water with short, sharp whistle sound. Flashes of electric blue. I’m working on a series of wildlife images carved within a circular border, in a similar way to my mouse and owl. This is the start of the […]
Bird Sculpture Book
In fact it is a monograph on sculptor Geoffrey Dashwood which I’m reading at the moment. It is a magnificent and illuminating book. The sculptor himself has written sections which for me, makes it doubly inspiring. It is a book of brilliance and filled with exceptional sculpture, it heaps such a surge of beauty […]
A newt in the goose pond
The snow melt-water gushes in torrents down the little beck here, bringing with it storm debris and silt, overwhelming and bursting the banks. Floating on the surface of the goose pond I found a newt, not moving, which I picked up and it sat lifeless in my hand. Its little body was like ice, […]
Exhibition in Southwold
One of my very first bird-watching trips was to RSPB Nature Reserve Minsmere in Suffolk. Over the years I’ve visited many times and enjoyed extraordinary bird views and glimpses of bittern, bearded-tits, marsh harriers, otters – I saw my first ever kingfisher there, and loved the walks along the beach, coastal lagoons and […]
As a postscript to stuff Siberian
It still blows in – but now I’ve forgotten about the cold. Thoughts are sculpture. There are contemporary sculptors from Siberia, as well as the ancient Scythian ones. I’ve discovered Dashi Namdakov – and I’m enchanted – mesmerised. His words ‘We shall not run away from our roots, from the forces of […]