It is about Sculpture!

Recent visitors to my blog might be thinking it is a 'wildlife watch' and nothing to do with sculpture.  However, for me wildlife is such a strong influence and inspiration for my work, that it is intimately connected with each day.  The carryings-on, just within the environs of my workshop, are largely my subject matter and I have to concentrate and be quite intense in my watching and looking - in the hope that I might convey something in my sculpture of a 'likeness' and 'liveliness', and that it resonate in some way with the joy and excitement I feel in my encounters with nature.

   

Stoats have featured highly over the last few months and these two are carved in Yorkstone - a fine-grained sandstone (my favourite stone to work) which is finished smooth.  So, after getting the detail with the chisel, there is lots of rubbing down with sandpaper - the stone is harder than my finger ends!

 

They are currently being shown at the summer exhibition 'Hand and Hammer' at the Saltbox Gallery in Helmsley.

Moorhens

This morning I saw nothing at the pond.   Later during the afternoon we had rain and I was so relieved - at least it was enough to make a puddle or two.  After I had finished at the workshop this evening I went back, to find adult moorhen enjoying the dampness.  I had not been there long when one of the birds alarm called and dashed for cover, and then took off in flight.  I only just caught it on camera.  Then the other birds flew off.

Then I saw the culprit - in an out of the reeds at the pond edge and scampering across the mud.

There was no sign of the egg, or the dead chick I saw yesterday, but plenty tracks. 

The stoat caught wind of me and disappeared.  I waited for some time, and heard Moorhen calls, and thought I heard chick noises, but cannot be sure.  A nearby tree hosts a sparrow-hawk nest and the young make constant calls, and birds mob the parents who yell in reply.  The odds seem rather stacked against this little chick - though I am keeping fingers crossed.

Hoping For Rain

It has been so hot and dry that a local pond has completely dried up.  I have never known this before.  Earlier in the year the moorhens bred there and a duck family, and although the water was low, they all thrived.  Yesterday I was amazed to see a tiny moorhen chick on the parched mud.  Just one.  It was calling loudly and out in the heat on its own.  This must be from a second brood.

Eventually a parent bird appeared and they moved into the reeds.  I scanned the pond and found a nest, with an unsuccessful egg nearby. 

 

  

 And a bit further away was another, sort of make-shift nest and a chick, but unmoving.  Did it perish due to the dry and heat?  I felt a bit sickened and worried and sent out a plea for rain. 

 I had to look up what moorhens eat, (RSPB) - water plants, seeds, fruit, grasses, insects, snails and worms - apparently the parent bird feeds the young chick to begin with but presumably they will be in need of water.  I will have to keep checking on this family. 

All Out for Open Studio

Friday was the first day of the Open Studio - preparation had got frantic - days before were spent cleaning out the workshop of stone chips and blocks of stone and I worked flat out to have everything presentable.  My idea was to have finished pieces on display, with work in progress, drawing books and maquettes showing the processes of making sculpture.

It all took much longer than I thought, and I got up an an unearthly hour on opening morning to do final arranging of pieces and put out my signs.

Last touches were put in place as people began arriving. 

As if to celebrate the opening - the Blue Tits nesting in the workshop decided it was time to fly, and out they popped from their nest place flitting and flapping amongst the sculpture, with great noise to let the parents know where they were, who dutifully attended with caterpillars to encourage and cajole.  Eventually they got to the great outdoors - this one made it up into a hawthorn tree safely, although it took all morning.  My visitors were lovely and listened to the how's and why's of stone sculpture and watched the fledgling saga.

The morning was extraordinary anyway - and then it was made doubly so - as my little goose hatched her first gosling, and it pipped its yellow fluffy song and I was so excited and proud. 

 

The weekend was busy at my studio - thankyou for all your purchases, compliments and kind words, advice and sculpture talk - despite having been hissed at on arrival by the new mother goose.  It has been a tremendously enjoyable few days - though I am glad of the (recovery) week inbetween opening next on the 19th and 20th, when you are all again welcome to my Open Studio.

Tipi Sculpture

On my way to the quarry last month I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of an amazing sculpture - right here in the village.  It was huge and intriguing - made of wood.  It just appeared.  I had no idea what it was and assumed it was a sculpture, or the makings of one.

I learned it was a Tipi - made in the traditional way of the Native American Sioux.  Timber had been cut, in lengths of 10 metres, cleaned of small branches and the bark removed to leave great straight lengths. 

These were then set up, in a specific order, so that each one supported the next until all the poles were raised in a circle with the top ends interlocking.  The site was strewn with evidence of recent labour, the processes of working the wood, and the smell of the de-barked, fresh hewn timber was intoxicating.

Red shavings of bark lay about, curling and twisting as they dried, releasing the sappy aroma.  The poles had been raised specifically for drying out, and the top tied simply with rope.

I stood in the middle of the structure and looked up, and marvelled at the construction and the lovely timber poles, their woody friendliness and imagined how homely it would be with the canvas wrapped around.  There would be a hole in the canvas near the top, to let out smoke from a central fire.

Once the poles have dried out they will be taken down, and the Tipi rebuilt with its covering at another site in the village ready for use.  A camp is planned - I can already hear the crackling fire and the wisdom of the elders through their stories of animals and nature.