Guides Centenary Camp - Harewood House

This last week has been spent running workshops at Harewood House for the Guides Centenary celebrations.  The international event was a huge camp, with a vast array of activities and opportunities for the many thousands attending.  They had their own theatre, disco and daily newspaper on site.

In my sessions they learned how to use the tools and to carve a small sculpture.  The results were incredible and the tents filled up with carved names, animals, flowers, fish and many other decorative pieces - some went on to chisel their work very small, so they could take them home on the aeroplane. 

Local Hero - Countrywise

What a surprise! I have been nominated as this week's Local Hero on the ITV programme Countrywise. They showed a short film of me working and being interviewed and featured some of my sculpture.

If you missed it - here's a chance to catch it on ITV Player

I have been overwhelmed by the response and everyone's lovely comments about my stone sculpture.

At the time of filming I was working on 'Beast' and putting some detail on the claws - here he is finished

About Countrywise

Paul Heiney and the team travel to all corners of rural Britain to bring you the very best of our countryside and coast. Countrywise meets the people who make Britain special and unearths the hidden surprises and delights in our back yard.

Paul is joined by historian Bettany Hughes, horticulturalist Rachel de Thame and wild food expert Mike Robinson, each using their specialist knowledge to explore a new dimension of the places they visit. The new series of Countrywise meets wild wolves..... read more

Wild Boar

The preview of my exhibition at the Hield Gallery, Bishop Monkton was held on Friday evening - it was balmy warm and the gallery and courtyard looked magical.  A big thankyou to everyone involved with the preparations - it made me very proud to be there.

This was a joint exhibition with David Winfield, whose paintings are inspired by the North Yorkshire landscape - perfect environments for my Wild Boar, two carvings in Yorkstone, which were part of the show.

Wild Boar are the subject of such wonderful mythological tales, achieved cult status for the Celts and there was even a Roman tribe in Northern Britain called Orci - 'people of the boar'.  There was an Irish hermit who kept a pet white boar, they are represented on coins, helmets and adornments and became the symbol of hospitality and feasting and represented skills in hunting and war.  Of course this is not surprising as they were running wild in Britain at the time, and it seems they are becoming part of our countryside again as there are re-introduction programmes running.

For me they hold a great fascination, they seem very ancient and very wild and I am working on realising a life-size Wild Boar sculpture - just at the sketching stage at the moment.

Stone Sculpture Demonstration

As part of the National Parks Week I will be demonstrating carving and sculpture methods at the launch day at the Moors Centre, Danby.  This is an opportunity to celebrate how the stunningly beautiful North York Moors is fundamental to and rich inspiration for my work.

This is a week packed full of events - on Sunday 25th July as part of the 'Inspiring Landscapes Inspiring People' I will be demonstrating my sculpture practice, and everyone has a chance to participate.   Also demonstrating will be painters, photographers, a silversmith and textile artist.

Meet the Artist - on Wednesday 28th July - I will be talking about my work and inspirations at the 'Inspired By .... Gallery', Danby.

For more details about the events The Moors National Park Centre, Danby.

NEWA

This is a wonderful exhibition - National Exhibition of Wildlife Art - and I was very pleased to have a piece selected for the show.

In the small beck which runs through my workshop yard, I have families of voles and the banks are pitted with their burrows.  I had seen one scurrying, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a water shrew.  I was captivated and watched it scrabble around under water with its nose rootling the sediment.  They move so fast it is difficult to keep up.  I did sketches at the time and decided to carve a shrew in a lovely piece of Cornish Soapstone - Polyphant which I had in the workshop.

This stone is a soft metamorphic rock and is easily worked with hand tools and carves well.  It has beautiful colouring which is brought to life when polished

So my Soapstone Shrew was accepted for the exhibition, and currently sits alongside lions, leapards, lapwings and a myriad of other wildlife - that is in paintings, prints and sculpture.  

Another sculptor at the exhibition who also works in a Cornish stone is Lawrence Murley who carves exquisite lizards and frogs in Serpentine.  The exhibition is well worth a trip for these alone - Gordale Nursery and Garden Centre, Burton, Wirral.