Wild Cherry spoons

A couple of spoons carved from the branch of a felled Wild Cherry tree that I found in a copse bordering Netham Park.

Spoon 1:



Spoon 2:

British Summer Time Ends (Photos)

Some snaps of my recent exhibition 'British Summer Time Ends':









Thanks to everyone that came along to see the show.
Special thanks to Ruth for organising the Capacity Bristol project, to Lisa for letting us borrow her van, and to Eve for helping me set up, pack down and for invigilating.

British Summer Time Ends
A solo show at the Parlour 26-30 October

I've got a little autumnal exhibition on next week. -A lot of the old stuff, a few new ones.

'Assembled using fallen leaves and other found natural materials, the work in this show reflects on the passing of time and the fragility of life.'

26-30 October 2011. Open daily 11-6
The Parlour
31a College Green
Bristol
BS1 5TB

Still Life with a Skull

My version of Philippe de Champaigne's Still Life with a Skull.

This collage was made using: Purple Sycamore leaves and seed casings, Red Birch bark, Purple Beech leaves, pressed Tulip flowers and strips of paper from a Wasp's nest.

Sylvan Song at the Nails Gallery

My 'Sylvan Song' sculpture is currently being exhibited at the Nails Gallery (under St. Nick's Market) as part of their 'Paradise' exhibition.

This group show also features the work of: SMUDGE, EDIE OP, JAMES DAW, SIMON UDEN, ERICA SURLA, ALEXIS SNELL, MARY COLLETT, EDWARD TAYLOR, EDITH MEIJERING, KELLY O'GORMAN, CHRISTOPHER EYLES, LIVIU OVIDIU MIRCEA, ROMINA BERENICE CANET, ALESSANDRA BOTTICELLI.

It runs until 20th October.

Ghost Bikes at The Showroom

The two Ghost Bike sculptures that I made a couple of years ago with my friend Oliver Hayles are currently being exhibited at The Showroom on College Green as part of this years Bristol Cycle Festival.

One of them is prowling in the centre of the room:

The other is stooped in the window offering a bedraggled bouquet to passers-by:


The show includes a library of books, magazines and manuals dedicated to cycling alongside artwork from Boneshaker, Pinhole Pedallers, Papergirl, Cycling Cultures, Dokumenta Ciclista, animation from Tim Wheatley and more.
It runs until Sunday 25th Sept.

Sylvan Song

The sculpture 'Sylvan Song' comprises of a second-hand, half-size violin and a covering of Silver Birch bark.
I wanted the finished object to look like something that could have been found lying around in the woods and for it to hopefully evoke some of the feelings a person may experience when immersed in the natural world.
Here's a close-up:

Inside the violin is a layer of birch leaves which are visible through the sound holes.

I collected my slivers of bark from fallen and semi-rotten Birch twigs and limbs found in Wales and Bristol.

Lime Flower Wine
'Municipal Planting Plonk' experiment 4'

Species of Tilia, or Lime tree are commonly found in the urban environment, lining streets and adorning parks. They've been widely planted by local authorities both historically and up to the present.
These trees are characterised by their delicate heart-shaped leaves and by the very sweet scented, yellow flowers which hang down in clusters. The leaves are edible (best picked in the spring when they're young) and the flowers can be dried and used as a herbal tea.
I'm using these blossoms to make a couple of gallons of plonk.

On a sunny, late June afternoon I collected a quantity of flowers from this tree (I think it's Tilia × europaea -the Common Lime) which grows on Brandon Hill in central Bristol:


When collecting the flowers I made sure that alongside the blossoms themselves I collected a number of the bracts that the flowers stem from. The bracts of the Lime tree contain tannins which will benefit the character of the finished wine.

Recipe: (Makes 1 gallon of wine)

Ingredients
roughly 2-3 pints of Lime blossom (with some bracts included)
a gallon of water
1kg castor sugar
1 teaspoon of cold black tea
1 lemon
half tspn yeast nutrient
white wine yeast

Method
Put the flowers and thinly peeled rind from the lemon in a large pan, cover with boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes. Let it cool and leave to steep overnight. Strain the liquid into a second pan, heat it, dissolve in the sugar and add the lemon juice and tea. When cool, put into a demijohn and add the nutrient and yeast. cover the jar with a clean cloth temporarily during the initial frisky fermentation, then after a few days top it up with water and stick on a bung and airlock.
Rack, mature and bottle.

Easton Arts Trail 2011 photos

Here's a handful of snaps of my stuff at this years Easton Arts Trail.

GREEN(bank) MAN

On Saturday afternoon I headed over to Co-operation road in Greenbank and spray-painted an image of a Green Man on one of the bricked up doorways of the old Elizabeth Shaw chocolate factory.

The foliage and berries of a Hawthorn tree are forming, and being disgorged by the character.

I got my inspiration for this piece from images of traditional Green Man stone carvings and from a row of mature Hawthorne trees that form a border between the chocolate factory and the Bristol to Bath cycle path.

E.C.C group show

I deposited a second disgorger of vegetation in Easton Community centre.
Named 'Briar' and consisting of a Bramble root and Cherry tree bark constructed head, this character has a living thornless Bramble cascading from it's mouth.
It's a re-working/second version of a 2009 piece called 'New Growth'.


Displayed behind this sculpture were four 2D pieces...
'Exhalation'
'Link'
'Ghost' (Linocut version)
'Woodland Burial'

...alongside the small 3D piece 'Coffin Smoother'.

Cheers to Patrick for organising the factory painting opportunity and to Lisa for organising the group exhibition.

Cabineterpillar

A sculpture I recently fabricated from former furniture for the Eastside Roots community garden centre next to Stapleton Road railway station.

The Cabineterpillar's head features a couple of drawer fronts fixed to a toilet seat:

The wood used to make this piece came from Bristol Wood Recycling Project, from furniture left/abandoned in the street and from the scrap-wood bin in the woodwork room at Inbristol Studios.

Three of the drawers making up the larva's segmented back contain compost and a bark mulch and have been planted with a small, creeping variety of Sedum which has a blueish hue. Hopefully over time these plants will spread across these areas and spill over the edges of the drawers.

Here's a pic showing the sculpture in context with the station platform in the background.

Thanks to everyone at Eastside Roots.

Coffin Smoother

This sculpture features an old 'coffin smoother' wood plane which I customised with the addition of a resurected corpse -carved from a Plum tree branch, and four coiled wood shavings.


A friend commented that the character looked to her like an Egyptian mummy flinging off it's bandages.

The head and torso of the figure were carved from a freshly cut bit of Plum back in the early spring.


The arms were carved a couple of months later from chunks of the same bit of wood and were then glued onto the body.


The figure in this piece was inspired in part by a striking stone-carving which rests above one of the crypts at Wells Cathedral:

Another of the statues in the cathedral that I particularly appreciated wears a shroud of scratched autographs:

(Cheers to Mike for supplying the log and to Bianca for producing the wood shavings.)

Inbristol Studios group show pics

A couple of snaps of the Inbristol studios group exhibition 'Made by Hand' at the Showroom...

...and photos taken of some of the studio members mitts as they go about producing their work. (These pics are displayed in one of the Showroom's windows.)