A few weeks ago I posted an article on photographing smoke
not realising how this would go on to influence a totally new experience that I
was going to undertake. I regularly try to do something new, just for fun so I had booked a
weekend with Brodick Castle rangers to have a go at wood carving. Never having picked up a wood chisel before it could be amusing (if not dangerous!).
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| The beginning |
The two day course was run by Marvin Elliott who lives and works on Arran and has
work in both public and private collections around the world. His little studio sits opposite the harbour
in the lovely village of Corrie.
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| Marvin's studio |
The weekend started with a short talk before heading off into
the forest, chainsaw in hand (that’s the professional hand of a ranger!) to
pick a piece of wood to carve. And this is where the influence of the previous
photography started to take effect. In
the wood I looked at, I could envisage the wonderful swirls of smoke and hidden
patterns and had a perfect picture in my head of a finished wood carving!
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| Work in progress |
Needless to say my skill lacked sadly behind. I had never tried to carve wood before and I
happened to pick a well seasoned piece of beech – a piece of concrete would
have been easier to chip at! But I did persevere with pictures of smoke roses,
periwinkles, hands and general swirls in my head. These were modified as the day went on and I envisaged drafts destroying my smoke images as the chisel when where it wanted and wood split and refused to bend to my will.
The end result was not quite how I had
imagined it but undeterred I went on to carve a sea serpent, on a slightly softer green piece of wood, which now sits
proudly in my garden.
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| Sea serpent in the making |
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| Now resident in my garden |
Whereas my inspiration came directly from taking a photograph, I found it fascinating to listen to Alex Boyd this week, whose inspiration led to a whole series of photographs. Alex is an internationally recognised photography, most known for his Sonnets series see some on this link which
features a character called Henning who features in all the images, wearing a white shirt
and braces, in remote / iconic locations around Scotland. Alex was on Arran and gave us an interesting talk
on how he developed the idea to take this series, along with the trials and
tribulations along the way! His love of
photographic and art history, and influenced by people such as Caspar David
Friedrich and Anselm Kiefer, motivated him to take a fresh look at locations
around Scotland. The resulting enigmatic
photographs often have a dark hidden message.
Alex is currently exhibiting at the Douglas Hotel – worth popping in for
a look.
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| Sign outside Marvin's studio |
