Sculpture
The Natural Eye 2014
The Natural Eye is the annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists – SWLA and takes place at the Mall Galleries, London in October/November. This year I submitted work for the exhibition and today selections were announced. Although I’ve tried not to be anxious, this week I have been overly pre-occupied with thoughts […]
Stone in Autumn colours
The Yorkstone block I’m carving at the moment started with outer layers of rich Autumn colour – they’re so beautiful it makes me hesitate to cut through them with my chisel. In that moment of stopping and enjoying the beauty of my stone I thought about those coloured layers solidly packed against adjacent stone […]
Photoshoot – sculpture in the spotlight
It has been a pretty exciting week, finishing my pieces and anticipating Photoshoot Day – the thought of having my sculpture being the centre of attention for a moment (albeit just a click moment) has felt rather good. I’ve made six small pieces ready for Winterlude, curated and organised by Art Connections who are […]
Stone Carving Workshop – Hawes
On Sunday I went over to the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes to run a Stone Carving Workshop. It is a lovely venue, the site used to be the railway station for the small town of Hawes and the museum holds a fascinating collection telling the story of the Dales people and landscape. The […]
Demonstration Day in Helmsley
Lots of artists began their demonstrations around Helmsley on Saturday, and I had a beautiful spot on the little road leading to Helmsley Castle and the Walled Garden – Duncombe Sawmills very kindly gave permission for me to set up in their show area (thankyou!). I was next to Caroline Riley, who was sketching, […]
Small Burrowing Mammal
… with short dark fur, popularly supposed (from the smallness of its eyes) to be blind. Did you guess what it was from the description? Mole – carved in Soapstone Of course there is so much more to a Mole than that, not least its huge and powerful front limbs – perfectly designed for […]
Wondrous Animals
Fables and folklore surrounding the Unicorn have long beguiled humankind, and certainly fascinated me. With their flowing white manes and long, curly horn and association with the moon they are the very symbol of purity and legendary for protecting their owner from poisoning. A beautiful and haunting beast, and an enchanting image for my […]
National Exhibition of Wildlife Art
Earlier in the week I drove down to the lovely little village of Waverton in Cheshire with stone sculpture in the passenger seat and footwell. It was ‘delivery of works’ day for the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art – the organisers then make selections from all the submissions for the exhibition. I’ve just learned […]
The joy of new tools
Tools do eventually wear out, their useful life comes to an end. I feel disgruntled and out of sorts when they do. They’ve become shaped to my hand, I’ve got used to how they work, I’ve sharpened them and they have served me well. Stone is a particularly punishing material on tools, especially […]
Demonstration of Stone Carving
There’ll be chips flying, hammer blows and quite a bit of dust – and probably aching arms too! On Saturday 2nd August I will be demonstrating stone carving in Helmsley as part of the town’s celebrations for Yorkshire Day (1st August, 2014). I have been invited by Helmsley Galleries to join the special event […]