Sculpture
Stone, a bird, and a man in a top hat
This stone is an example of 19th century rock art (graffiti) at an ironstone industrial railway site in the North York Moors – it shows a man in a top hat, and a bird. Someone has spent time in carefully carving out this image, it is no idle sketch, there are charming details, feathers […]
Stone in some form
What a brilliant episode this week’s Gardeners’ World was (did you see it?) and quite a treat when Joe Swift visits Chelsea gold medal winner and stonemason Martin Cook to see how he uses contemporary rock sculpture within his Buckinghamshire garden. So much talk of stone – I watched eagerly – rockeries, incised stone, […]
Badger Sculpture
This is a recent sculpture in Kilkenny Limestone – a Badger sitting and sniffing the air, or perhaps just taking in his surroundings. It took almost as long to polish as it did to carve. Kilkenny Limestone is a hard stone and very dense. From the quarry it is quite a light grey colour, […]
Lapwing Sculpture
I didn’t expect that this piece of Cobalt stone would become a Lapwing – I thought the colouring and patterning might suit something more abstract. When thinking about sculpting a Lapwing I had imagined it in sandstone – then all of a sudden I saw this chunk of serpentine, not as a lump of […]
From the Rookery
This bird sculpture is carved in Springstone (a hard Serpentine stone mined in Northern Zimbabwe) and I’ve called it Fumblefot. The piece of stone is actually an off-cut from a sculpture I previously carved (Fugol), and in a similar way I’ve retained the golden colouring at the outer edge, inside the stone turns to […]
Dog Sculpture
Or should I say three dogs sculpture. Westies carved in Portland Limestone – I met the three West Highland White Terriers who were the subjects for this carving. They visited me here a few times, so I got to know them a little. Immediately their huge personalities were evident, alert, happy, exploring. […]
Stone Owl Sculpture
Owl sitting in the sunshine ready to be packed up for the trip to Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens tomorrow to set up the Sculpture in the Garden exhibition which runs throughout August.
Tall and elegant stone Birdbath
At this time of year I’m always busy making birdbaths, which I love, as I know the joy of watching birds flit to the bowl rim, sip water, or take the plunge for a full, splashy bath. What a joy it is to watch. All my birdbaths are individually made by hand in a […]
Lick into shape
The illustration on the front of this little book drew me to it, and then when I read the spine ‘Animal Carvings’, I couldn’t resist. It is by M D Anderson, who also wrote The Medieval Carver, and was published in 1938 by Cambridge University Press. Medieval thinking was very different, and understanding it […]
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens – exhibition
Chips are flying and new sculpture is taking shape. The weeks before an exhibition are always exciting – even if there’s a bit of a frenzy in the workshop getting sculpture finished on time. Nothing like an exhibition deadline to galvanise arms into action and focus the mind. This is Bird in a Tree […]