Wildlife
Swallow sculpture in progress
Stone sculpture in progress depicting a Swallow momentarily perched. The carving is in Cornish Soapstone and will be polished once I’ve completed the shaping, slimming and refining. A swallow pair nested here at the workshop this year, raising five youngsters and so I’m surrounded by their happy sounding chirruping as I carve. I watched […]
Mole Sculpture
A sculpture, straight out of the animal world, carved in Cornish Soapstone (Polyphant) depicting a Mole ready to put its huge front digging paws to use and burrow underground. The stone piece used for carving Mole has beautiful colouring, which has been fully celebrated in the refined finish and polished smooth surface. Mole sculpture […]
My Otter sculpture’s fabulous garden
I’ve just received this stunning image from my customers, showing their Otter sculpture now in place. Otter is beautifully positioned on a stone wall topped with sandstone slabs. The wall incorporates steps leading upward to a central flower bed and planted borders following the arc of a protectively enclosing outer wall. Otter’s gentle curves […]
Otter at Rest
Over the past few days I’ve been putting finishing touches to my latest Otter sculpture. It has been so hot I’ve had to rest too. A burst of work and then stand back and cool down. Tomorrow it is being delivered to its new home and I’m very excited to see it in-situ in […]
The Corncrake by Frank Rennie
This book – The Corncrake – An Ecology of an Enigma by Frank Rennie has come to the top of my ‘to read’ book pile. I wanted to know more about this bird, having sculpted a pair of Corncrakes, and how lucky I am that Whittles Publishing launched The Corncrake this year. Frank Rennie […]
Nuthatch Nest
I had an inkling that this hollow might become a nest site for a Nuthatch pair. Earlier in the year when we had the unexpected snow flurry in March I saw a Nuthatch flying from the hole with beakfulls of snow. It was excavating the entrance which had become filled and after pecking and […]
Would-be Windhover
At the moment I’m listening to the Kestrel chicks in the nest box at my workshop. Each day their pips and calls get louder, and more recognisably bird of prey. Their shuffling more frequent and noisy. They’ll start putting their heads out of the nest box entrance hole very soon and see the outside […]
Hedgerow Birds
The hedgerow is filled with sounds of newly hatched birds, and busy with parent birds flittering to-and-fro, in and out, to feed hungry mouths. As I pass birds scatter – the wingbeats of Yellowhammers, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Sparrow. A Wren perches at the top, and keeps singing, then disappears too, into the interior of the […]
Easter-time Gorse blooms
The gorse is coming into bloom here on the moor – traditionally it was used as a colourant for painting Easter eggs – though I’ve never tried it. In stopping to admire the flowers I disturbed a Stonechat pair – the male perching high and calling with a sharp loud sound, like two stones […]
Barn Owl in Winter Light
Recently days have been wintery, short, dark and grey – and then this morning the sun came up in golden style and put a glint on everything. Here my Barn Owl sculpture is bathed in that special winter light. The Barn Owl sculpture is carved in Hazeldean Sandstone which is quarried near Alnwick, Northumberland […]