Tuesday 28 June 2011

This is the 'Ram's Head' I carved in a day for the Otley Show in May 2011, this is the oldest agricultural show in the calender.



.....undercutting and pattern-making to add a decorative element to the sculpture.




This was the first year a chainsaw demonstration took place here and I believe people have asked for it to be a regular feature at the show...I already have a design ready for 2012 !


Above is an early work I carved in a 4x2feet long piece of slate back in my Birmingham College of Art days....it was named 'Brothers' and depicts the struggles of sibling rivalry.My influences around this time were J.Epstein, H.Moore and H.Gaudier-Bzreska.



I carved this 'Leaf Week' when my wife and I moved into our first house together back in 1995.



....and here is the next one in our second home in 2002....the spirals and leaf entanglements representing unity and continuity.



'Science and Mathematics' stone 4x3x3.5feet 2001. This is the first of a series of four sculptures I am in the process of producing as a gift to the pupils of Prince Henrys Grammar School in Otley, Yorkshire where I am the present Head of Art & Design. Students in both years 9 and 12 designed the works through drawings and I then transfered these to three dimensions using stone-cutting powertools.


...and here is a view of the site looking across to Otley Chevin.



'Family Of Mine' Pine 3x2x2feet 1986


'Family Of Mine' Pine 3x2x2feet 1986.


'Knowledge' plaster 2x2x5ins. I carved this when I was back home in Leeds for the summer after my first year at Art College...poured some plaster in a milk carton, put on the music, sat in the sun and got my penknife....this was later carved in wood on Otley Chevin in the late 1990s but was stolen after a month !





'Guitar' 5feet tall...Otley Chevin.








A clay maquette for 'Fossil' 2009......I work out my designs in soft clay then hand carve small models in plaster before I switch on the chainsaw.










When my family and I were in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. for a year in 2007 I was an invited sculptor to the International Ridgeway Rendezvous Chainsaw Carving Competition. Living and working in Manheim I decided to carve something other than a bear or an eagle so I carved this tractor...I had intended it to have been in one large 5x5x5feet piece but I was limited by the wood available. Nearly 250 chainsaw carvers were there during the weekend mainly from the states but also from Germany, Japan and myself representing Great Britain so it was a proud moment for me and my family.


Artist and sculpture.


This is the house I was brought up.in Leeds and I carved a Yorkshire Rose in limestone as a memento of my happy childhood there.
'The Family Rose' Limestone 3x3x2feet.


...both my mum and dad had their own rose gardens to the left and right of where the sculpture is now sited.



'Still Life' 6x4x4feet aerated concrete . Royal Society of British Architects, London (Tarmac Topblock Sculpture Exhibition, First prize winner 1985)


'Infinity Loop' Chevin Forest Park, Yorkshire 1997/2009




'Roman Chariot' Chevin Forest Heritage Time Trail 2010



'Cradle' Chevin Forest Park, Yorkshire Pine (6feet tall)


'A Yorkshire Tale' Oak 5x4x4feet 2008.

I carved this on site with mallet and chisels over a three day period...the images appeared as the sculpture developed...even the compass in the foreground was only introduced when an orienteering event began in the carpark I was working in !










These were made in Wroclaw when I was an invited sculptor from the UK to take part in the International Polish Sculpture Symposium...they act as working drawings in space before and during the carving of 'Acrobats'.




'Acrobats' Elm 7feet tall.....carved in three days and sited in Poland.



'Adoption' Limestone 3x3x4feet. I did this when I was an Artist In Residence at Pudsey Crawshaw High School back in the mid 90s.





'Personal Uprising' 7feet tall Ash. I made this just after I had graduated from Birmingham College of Art in 1986.....the large branch limbs reaching up to the skies in hope and anticipation.







'Still Life With Chain' Limestone 3x2.5x2.5feet 1986.


Direct carving is the dialogue between the sculptor and the materials....this was an exercise where I set up a still life group of objects and then proceeded to release their representations in stone...the journey is of both discovery and discipline.