My last event before Christmas this year is Oxton Open Studio Tour on 29th Nov 10am-4pm, 30th Nov 12am-4pm November. I will be at Callister Gardens, 34a Slatey Road, Oxton, CH43 2U. with three other artists. Come and join us for a minced pie and a glass of wine. There are artists at a number of other studios in the area with easy walking distance. A great tour and an opportunity to buy a few really individual Christmas presents.
I have made some small bowls and glasses stands.
Shell BowlHeart BowlGlasses Stand
I am have some new sculptural pieces like Foxy Lady, Trinity and Serenity.
Foxy LadyTrinitySerenity
…….. and many other pieces. Come by and chat about how I make my work. I will be taking a bench and demonstrating how I work.
I have been busy making new pieces for the Wirral Society of Arts annual Exhibition. This year it is taking place at Mayer Hall, CH63 7PL in Bebington, a lovely location and well worth a visit. The exhibition is open on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10am-5pm and Thursdays 1pm-5pm 4=26th October.
Its always fun to come up with new ideas for carvings and make them in time for an event. I am exhibiting several totally new pieces including ‘Serenity’ and ‘Trinity’.
There are many Wirral artists exhibiting a mixture of paintings and sculptures and the standard is high, well worth a look, perhaps you could pick up an early Christmas presy.
I am delighted that I have been invited to be the guest artist at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum from 9th August- 7th November 2025. a selection of my work will be exhibited and can be bought in the gallery. I have enjoyed producing new pieces for this which will be on sale for the first time.
I have been getting ready for WOST for a while now, making bits of jewellery, some new designs of bowls and some new sculptures.
This is a one of my favourite opportunities to show my work and to meet people and talk about carving all weekend. its fabulous. I open my workshop which was only completed last June and give those that want the opportunity to watch me carve or to have a go them selves.
I always try to have plenty of new work for people to see. This year I have been working on some new bowl designs and still have a couple to do.
As my main love is carving and creating unique sculptures I have been working on some new pieces. I have really enjoyed working in spalted beech and have done some new pieces for WOST.
I am delighted that the Royal Cambrian Academy of Arts has accepted two pieces of my work for their 2025 Open Exhibition which opens on 11th January. I will be taking the work up next week. They accepted ‘Innominate’ and ‘Mother and Child’.
I am delighted to be exhibiting 3 pieces at the Castle Park Arts Open Exhibition from 8th November – 21st December 2024. Its a lovely exhibition, well worth a visit with some great artists, both established and up and coming.
I will be at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum with Oxton Art Fair on 16th and 17th November this year I am really looking forwards to it. A lovely event, lots of fabulous artists and plenty of potential Christmas presents.
I have some new work that I will be taking. Drop in and join us on Saturday or Sunday.
More information can be found at www.oxtonartfair.co.uk
For many years my workshop has been located in the conservatory at the back of my house. It has had the advantages of having great light, a good even temperature as it is north facing and being conveniently near to the kettle.
After many years I decided to have a new workshop and spent a great deal of time selecting a large shed. I wanted to keep the advantages, so large windows were a must for the light, large enough for my workbench, storage and for moving around, plenty of head space and for an airy feeling, good ventilation to help on hot days, insulation to help on cold days and large door for easy access.
I chose a 8ft x 10ft shed with height 7ft from Axis Sheds. It was made over a 6 week period. I asked for an extra window heavy duty frame to allow for insulation, a breathable membrane an an air vent. It was delivered and assembled and I love the quality. It is light and airy and the double doors make access easy. Before moving in I insulated the walls and the ceiling and then cladded the interior with pine cladding and plywood. I have not had electricity installed as I only tend to carved in natural day light and do not use electrical tools often – but we will see!!
I then started to move my bench and tools in.
The space has developed and improved with the addition of another worksurface, more tools and shelving to take plastercine models, books, magazines and yet more tools.
It is now just great for carving in, the light is great and I have not missed electricity as yet this summer. I have created a curtain that can be hung outside the windows from greenhouse shading netting to use on sunny hot days, but have not needed to use it much this summer!! The temperature has been fine, although we still have to see how winter goes. I am thinking about either a solar panel on the roof or an electricity supply to provide the power to run a small unit to take the chill off in winter and keep the damp out if it is necessary.
I store wood and sculptures in the house where temperature and humidity are easier to control.
As part of my residency at the University of Chester I have been doing a project on scaling my work up. I decided to enlarge reciprocity.
This has involved 3D scanning an existing sculpture and using software to divide the sculpture into slices with pre-set thicknesses that match with the plywood or planks the final sculpture will be made from. Enlarged outlines of each slice can then be transferred onto paper using a CAD machine. These outlines can then be copied onto plywood or planks of wood and cut our using a jigsaw or scroll saw. Each slice needs to be labelled so it can be positioned correctly before sticking and clamping together. This created a rough and unrefined version of the enlarged sculpture which can then be refined using chisels.
I found it was more practical to make the sculpture from vertical slices as there were only about 10 of them and they were easy to fit together. I did try horizontal slices, there were about 50 tiny pieces and it was very hard to identify their correct positions.
My first experiment was a small increase in size from about 30cm heigh to about 45cm high, so a 50% increase in size. for this I hand produced paper templates, drew them onto planks of black walnut and cut them out with a scroll saw. before gluing and clamping the tree pieces together. Once dried I used chisels to refine the shapes and create the inner curves and smoothed the surface. The black walnut took a smooth finish really well and looked great once oiled and waxed.
So next is to use to a CAD machine to increase the scaling and the accuracy…….. more to follow.
This Summer I am taking part in Wirral MakeFest on 1st June at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum and Wirral Open Studio Tour on 8th-9th June from my workshop in Heswall. The exciting news is that I have a new studio arriving this Wednesday and hope to have it set up intime for WOST, so I am really busy with preparations. I would love you to call by and see the studio and new pieces of work. Details of locations can be found in the WOST brochure or online at wirralarts.com and for Make Fest at wirralmakefest.org
I have carved a number of pieces this year including Gaia, a swirling form of interacting shapes creating balance and harmony, and my ‘Seaweed Ladies’, abstracted human forms that give every appearance of communicating with one another. I have continued my experiments with mobius strips in spalted beech.
I have also submitted work to exhibit at the Liverpool Art Fair, as part of Affordable Art and am approaching a couple of new shops to stock my work – exciting times. More to follow on this soon.
