General | 08.11.16

Willowtree sculpture garden

A magic garden

What a wonderful rambling garden with some trees over 150 years old. It seems Henry Moore was right, sculpture is best seen in a natural setting. . So this exhibition at Willowtree sculpture garden is part of a 9 open gardens festival at Laggan, NSW.  I enjoyed the opening ceremony and the haunting sounds of didgeridoo and guitar.

The exhibition

Artists have their work on display for the month of November 2016. Many of the works are carved in stone or wood or fabricated and cast in metal and ceramic. Abstract works carved in Shona stone seem popular. The black stone carves well takes a high polish and has great visual appeal.

My work ‘Mindstream’ 

Carving a sandstone rock sourced from a coastal area in NSW south coast is great fun. Each stone has a story and I do my best to let the stone speak. It comes as no surprise then that this sculpture reflects in part its maritime history. This is no ordinary rock. The rock is an example of ‘windblown’ sandstone and has no inclusions such as shell fragments.

Ambient light

It surprised me to see how much the garden setting influenced the mood of each of my sculptures. The sun provides subtly changing light conditions and the work seemed to ‘come alive’. This is quite a change from the static lighting in many gallery spaces.

Sleepover

I took advantage of a nights accommodation in a local deconsecrated church made of granite in the early 1800s. A farmer bought the church and used it as a shearing shed for 60 years. It appears he traded the pews for his ewes! Luckily architects from Sydney have now remodelled the building honouring its past history while creating up market accommodation. What a treat