sculpture and drawing

Small and large scale works for sale or commission, 
for interiors, gardens and public sites

 

 




Scattered Seeds - Horsham Park Sculpture 

themes:

 

The purpose was to give a symbolic access to a different mood within the park.  To introduce the elements of less managed natural growth, playfulness, tactile surfaces, colours, shifts in scale, otherworldliness. 

References
The Gateway has some specific references to the nature of the green spaces in the Horsham area.  These are:

Heathland ­(rare habit, rich with wildlife, which is being conserved in St Leonards Forest and Buchan Park) brings lizards, ferns, sundews (insect trapping plants), berries.
 

Seasons
Oak for summer, ivy for winter evergreens
 

Mythology
The St Leonards legend brings the image of the dragon but there was also the Dragon family (name goes back to 1682) which has probably named Dragons Green in the Horsham area and Dragons Lane in Cowfold where this artist lives and walks daily.  
The dragon legend includes the reward requested by St Leonard after ridding the people of the dragon that the snakes be banished from the forest.  However there is always a snake in the garden and the snake serves as a personal motif and warning within this artists work.

Flower wheels The two flower wheels are primroses and loosestrife.  One emphasises the hope of spring the other is a common flower in the area and personal motif of the artist.  To show flowers in a  simplified and stylised circular pattern is common in both the West and the East.  In England an obvious example is the Tudor rose, in the East the lotus is used in many contexts.  This artist has a strong interest in cross-cultural work.

Gothic Carving  A strong influence.  In medieval church carving the tipped up seats (misericords) often have playful themes of the topsy turvy world ie the cart before the horse, the pig playing pipes to represent their squealing sound, showing the back instead of the front of a flower (showing the chaos of changing the world order).  There are playful elements here that the back reflects the front of each gatepost but is not consistent.  Some elements come through to the other side and weave logically, others don’t. 

The tool marks and pattern making are also influenced by this vibrant and sometimes crude hand carving of the past. 

The human antlered head is the overseer of all the natural areas and is there to balance what is allowed to dominate.  On a simple level he could be seen as representing the park manager, the maintenance staff etc or a Celtic Cernunnos God of fields and farming.

Materials The Gateway is carved in green (unseasoned) oak.  Each part is a single 4M high 600mm wide and 120mm thick piece.  There is 1.3 meters in the ground.  There are steel rods fixed crosswise and then one cubic metre of concrete poured into the two footings to keep the wood upright.  The carvings are coloured with spirit stains and oil pigments.  They are coated over the top with 4 layers of Danish Oil, which will be reapplied each year.  Until the oil was finally applied the work had to be covered with a tarpaulin every time it rained as black tannins leach out of the wood when wet and streak down the untreated surface. 

Timescale The Gateway took 320 hours to carve (around 25 hours is the maximum completed in a week).  It was started August 2006 and completed in May 2007.  It was largely carved inside the artist’s studio in Cowfold over winter, but was completed upright in a trial pit in the ground where around 3 weeks was spent finishing details and adding the stains and oil. 

 

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