Ripple at Winnall Moor

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The carved green oak seats for the Nature Reserve at Winnall Moor were commissioned by the Martin de Retuerto, Manager of the Wildlife Hampshire and Isle if Wight Wildlife Trust Reserve at Winnall Moors in 2009. They compliment the Entrance feature I made for the same site and were made from what remained of the wind blown oak that was used . A third seat was also given by the Trust to the Trinity House Project that provides day care and support for the homeless people in the area. The seats evolved from the scale models I made at the Carter Artworks studios and once again I realised how massive small factors of enlargement could be!
The images show the carving process quite well and I was surprised just how much pure physical work was involved in shaping the timbers. I found that you could use a percussion drill with a sharpened chisel bit as well as a compressed air chisel usually used for cutting steel as well as the big chisel and mallet to carve the timber . The seats were inspired by the watery nature of the place and the larger double seat was intended for use as an outdoor class-room where children could both sit and watch the life forms found through their water-dipping activities led by Rachel remnant warden of the Moors. Inspired by ideas from Theodor Schwenk’s book Sensitive Chaos, Brancusi and a song Ripple by the Grateful Dead it gave me new ideas for sculpture and has lead onto the carving work I am doing for the Swanwick Nature Reserve. Walking early one beautiful sun speckled morning around the Moors inspiration came quickly. I was looking for sites for the two benches/seats and paused for a while looking at sunlight playing on the water at the confluence of streams. It reminded me of Sensitive Chaos by Theodor Schwenk who shows in his book that the creative and erosive sculpting forces of water show the essence of the universe.