The end of a commission, but the start of the New Sculpture Trail at Cobtree!

Trails with Tales Comes Home!

The final sculpture installation at Cobtree happened today. The new artwork, 'Trails with Tales', stands at 2.4 m high and is carved from a single 4 ton block of Kilkenny Limestone. The sculpture is located at the entrance to the new visitors center and at the pathway that is the start of the Cobtree Sculpture Trail. There is still some landscaping to be completed before the grand opening on the 3rd of August! Its great to see the sculpture in a different environment than the one Ive been used to at the workshop. The scale of the sculpture works really well and the long deliberation and consultation between Jo, Lewis, Lizzie and myself regarding the positioning of the sculpture has paid off! Even Gert the elephant looks right at home on top!

Park Life.

A selection of leaf forms carved into one of the sections of the stone sculpture.  

There is a real variety of different trees to be found within the arboretum at Cobtree Park. 

The leaf patterns extend down one section of the sculpture while on the left you can see the textures and details of an old topographical map of the area with, Cobtree Park located in the top left corner.

A River Runs Through It

The Landscape of a Map

The Map being used on the carving is dated from the 1970’s and interestingly still clearly shows the old sites of the Ballast & Clay Pits, Round Wood as well as the grounds of Cobtree Manor. The inclusion and carving of the map is a way of referencing the past while creating a link with the present modifications to the site at Cobtree.

The surrounding landscape hasn’t changed that much since the days of Maidstone Zoo, and the old map links us directly to that immediate environment. It provides us with a sense of place and it can be used to display features, portrayed in a highly symbolic style. Like all maps they become estimations, and interpretations of a true geographic condition. In particular, I have focused on the linear contours, boundaries and tracks that divide the area with particular emphasis to the site at Cobtree and the River Medway.

Go With The Flow!

Filters and Sunshine

My mantra for the last few weeks has been, “Spend another day on it’, Spend another day on it”, so much so is my desire for accuracy! Unfortunately this is the way it has to be when you are not content with how the overall sculptural form is looking. For me, it has to work from all angles. Strangely, some of the best angles and perspectives are when you are above the sculpture looking down and through it. I will take some photos from above and post them when complete. However, it’s the slight changes needed to a curve or if a line is too straight which makes all the difference. If the lines are not working together it can throw everything out, which makes it unsettling on the eye as well as the adjoining line or curve. The only solution is to get out the pencil and to draw straight onto the sculpture, ready to carve, trim and tighten, pulling everything together. 

With the sculpture having its final hole cut through the bottom section I am delighted how this looks as it still has retained a solidness to its form. It will slowly become wider, with the crescent opening until it emphasises a greater lean, sweeping and twisting around the back of the sculpture.

The next step now is to begin the drawing, transferring and texturing of imagery onto the front bands of stone. These will include the topographical map of the Cobtree area, leaf patterns and water patterns. However, this will have to wait a few weeks, as there is a very important issue of travelling to Italy, in search of sun, sea and stone!!

The Next Apprentice!

I had the pleasure of welcoming a small group of budding artist’s from Barming Primary school to the workshop the other day to have a look at the development of the Cobtree Entrance Sculpture and to try their hand at a bit of stone carving. The children arrived with no hesitation about getting dusty and picking up a hammer and chisel. It was very refreshing to hear the children answer questions about art, their inspirations and even their knowledge of stone and geology was impressive, clearly a reflection of their education from both teachers and parents. Luckily I did not get put on the spot too much regarding answering questions about some of the more abstract works in the studio! It’s a great leveler having your work interpreted by younger eyes; it helps dilute the pretentiousness that once may have been present when conceptualizing your ideas!  With their pockets full of small stones for souvenirs the children were encouraged to make a trip to The Cobtree Park to view, touch and draw the other stone carvings that have been installed along the sculpture trail.

Pierced form

Progress is being made even if it is a little slower than I would like.  The past few days have become disrupted by bad weather and returning phone calls! It has been my colleagues that have been visiting the workshop that have probably noticed a greater difference in the carving and the one thing that I get complemented on is the patience I seem to be displaying on such a large carving. I never really think about how long things take, I just think about doing the best I can with the stone and finding the correct form, irrespective of how long it will take me to get there.

The one thing that I have been keen to get going on and that could really speed up the process was the piercing of the stone. These holes through the stone would really help me determine how narrow each band of stone will need to be.  Its an exciting point in the process, tunneling your way through the rock, making a route through time. I am always reminded by the concepts of Barbara Hepworth’s carvings more than Henry Moore when I think about making holes in sculptures.

‘The hole becomes a way back and a way forward through the sculpture. The hole is also the place occupied by the air we are breathing.  In the space inside, or rather through the sculpture, time is both present and meaningless – and that is time’s true nature, it does and it does not exist’ (Hepworth 1934, cited in Winterson, 1934: 17-25).

Close Up on Patterns

Close Up!

The back of the sculpture is very different to the front of the carving. It is also the area that I didn't resolve as much when working on the model. I always knew I would be slowly feeling my way around the stone, pushing planes back and bringing  areas forward.
Its interesting that the lines that I had drawn on the stone to indicate what needs to be removed at the very start are now the lines I am cutting. However, when you do start to cut and carve you are always considering alternatives with the carving or new possibilities with the form of the sculpture. Could that be made thinner? Can I go deeper? Do I need to change the angle of that surface?  Normally my instinct is right from the start but I am always aware that sometimes you can be too hasty and miss an opportunity to do something different. When you have taken it away there is no putting it back and the material is not very forgiving when you make the wrong decisions!! Now that the lines are cut into the back my emphasis will now be on the twist from the side profiles. The edges are rising up 2.5m so the lines need to be elegant and subtle for the twists to work. There is no more standing on the ground now which is giving me a different perspective on the carving seeing it from above. Preparation is key at the moment on getting the best and most comfortable working positions for the day ahead.

Making the first move!

It seemed like the perfect time to make the first attempt to move the block and get it upright! I felt I had removed as much of the stone as I could at this stage and in order to progress I was going to have to think about the lift. Everything up until this stage has felt very mechanical about my way of working. The blocking out stage is always pretty straight forward and not necessarily that interesting! It does however require tremendous amounts of splitting and cutting, which also requires the motivation and energy of course to keep repeating the process.

However, excitement and trepidation always builds when you know you are going to see the stone standing and be only one of a handful of people who will have seen the back of the stone for the first time. There is still around 2.5 ton in the block and I am aiming to have this reduced to around 2 ton by the time I have worked the back and the sculpture is nearing completion. Until that time there is still a lot more grinding to be done.