Sculpture
Crow Country
Most days they are my background sound, and sometimes I stop, sit, and take time to watch their flapping rise, fall and curving in the sky above the line of trees which form the view from my workshop. Occasionally lone birds will caw and rattle at me from their perch at the top […]
Honing and Kibbling
Once I’ve carved my sculpture the surface can be ‘dressed’ to give textures and finishes, and there are many different surfaces I can create. Any finish given will alter the percieved colour of a stone, so I think about this when deciding. You can see the difference in the little samples above, they’re both […]
City Dog
I’ve just come across these pictures of my dog sculpture and they reminded me of when I carved the Pug. Some little while ago I was approached by Elegant Clutter to help with of one of their design projects. The client had requested a carved stone dog and liked one of my dog carvings […]
Swan Sculpture
Yesterday I delivered my swan sculpture to Stratford-upon-Avon, along with two large stone plinths, one for the swan, and another for a bowl-shaped birdbath which is also for the garden. They are for a newly built Tranquility Garden, designed by Spartacus Landscape Gardens for Stratford Town Council. I feel so proud of my sculpture […]
Sculpture in Kirkbymoorside
Just a week from now I’ll be in Kirkbymoorside exhibiting my sculpture in the Moorside Room as part of the Christmas Fair market. This morning I’ve been painting a sign for the entrance so you’ll find us easily and Janet has made this lovely poster. It has made me think how easy […]
Is it a pear? … & Edinburgh Art Fair
It is a question I get asked about my ‘pear-shaped’ sculptures – I didn’t think about pears at all whilst carving, but it is a shape, full of roundness and curves, that I love. The texture of the skin is gorgeous too, like some browny-green, golden fine-grained stone. The sculptures were a direct response […]
Novemberish
I’ve carved a pumpkin for Halloween – all that plump roundness, and deeply ribbed skin – irresistable to sculpting hands. There seems to be a lot of folk-lore surrounding the pumpkin – they’re commonly carved into decorative lanterns, called jack o’lanterns for the Halloween season, I remember carving turnips and swede when younger. I […]
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, […]