Tales from the Woods

Today I took Cosmo to work with me in the woods. I negotiated the entrance and surfacing works for the new car park and spent the whole day routing local school childrens designs onto tree stumps. As the nearest entrance  was closed I only saw two people all day. One of them the imfamous Sid the Schnowser who I have spoken about on another blog.



Cosmo always on the look out for squirrels



detail; toadstools



I did as many as I could in one day, they dont take too long if your prepared to cut boldly. I sketched them on the stump first with a coloured pencil, the rather boldly cut out shapes. Often I could not see the junctions of the lines, and once or twice cut through bits where I would have rather not! The main toad stool above should have had the stalk reaching down to the ground but I cut it off my mistake as the whole thing was covered in saw dust. But you would have never even known that if I hadent have told you eh...! I liked designing things to fit in what are nearly circles, and these designs remind me of coins in some way. They are woodland currency depicting animals, insects, fungi and plants etc. 

Highland Cattle in the padock nearby,

I have included a couple of owls as I have heard them at dusk walking Cosmo

 The two above show different insects and the one on the left is the fiercest beetle I have ever seen!



Butterfly and leaves



I really enjoyed my day, but Cosmo drank all the water and I was thirsty when I got back home after leaving through an extra gate that was not there when I arrived in the morning.

It seems all the permissions have been granted by authorities and conservation bodies including Natural England, so things should start happening over the rest of the spring and summer months.

The Final Schools Workshop

We ran a workshop along the lines of the ones done previously, this one was in the Junior school closest to where I live. Anyway this class had been to the woods before with KWT and were very talkative, they were actually really noisey. So noisey in fact I thought that after about 20 minutes they would have all shown me their drawings about 4 times and start throwing stuff about and tell me stories about firing their brothers air pistol or something similar.

Although noisey they continued to work and my prediction was utterly wrong. They carried on working very well, right to the end of school. I listened to a few stories while we worked, one or two might have been a little on the tall side, but they just worked in a noisey way!

some of their work was amazing

again working best with good reference material provided bt KWT


The other thing about this workshop was that I carried this socking great tree trunk up a number of flights of steps. This was a finished example from one of the previous classes workshops were I had carved their designs onto the tree trnck. I wanted to show then what the finshied thing would look like. They were excited then right at the start.

There will be a total of four of these mini totem poles made, and many more of their designs will be cut into the top of flat tree stumps cut by a chain saw when coppicing. I will start these in the woodland within a week or so and will post photos then.

the Blean Woods is home to the very rare Heath Fritillary Butterfly

This is the finished pole for class 6 Szarbo in my garden



deatil including 'Cosmo' further in the background

 And the final piece of news is that I updated the map of the trail features, as things have developed slightly and some things being eliminated while others added, or modified this made the old one rather out of date.

the updated map

 

Design Workshops

So work had really begun on creating the Wildart Trail. I took my dog for a walk up the woods and saw lots of activity. A willow arch, well really its a tunnel has been started. It has a fancy diamond pattern built into the sides of it.
I also saw two large tree trunks lying near the entrance to the trail. I stopped to measure how large they were, as I know this will be a pair of totem poles which I will be doing some detailed designs for soon. A very interesting topic totemic societies, where people live in 'historical landscapes!' A very different way of explaining the world compared with our scientific logic in our techno western cultures.



5m long and 60cm wide at the bottom. The other 5m long and 40cm wide at the bottom

 The other thing which I have been busy with is, working with Herne Junior School. This was an amazing day in the classroom with pupils drawing. I was surprised on how into this the pupils were. Staff from Kent Wildlife Trust had brought boxes and boxes of stuff including games, wasps nests, beetles in petri dishes and loads of images and information. This was a lot to carry, but paid dividends in the quality of work produced. You might think 'oh you would say that though wouldn't you'! ..But...I am used to going into schools and working on subjects you cant see, and drawing from imagination with little reference material. As an artist it is my job sometimes to invent the reference material, so this was the opposite of that, and the children were really enjoying drawing things they could touch and see. This was a welcome change from what I am used to.


Real stuff to pick up and draw.



Designs to be transfered into artwork on the Wildart Trail



and a willow entrace archway/tunnel has appeared in the last week

My next task then; to create a series of short totem poles using the work generated in these classroom drawing sessions. In total there will be four posts one for each class we worked with. So all in all things are moving forward now, and real tangible things are happening.

Moving into the next phase.

So it's all good news and phase two will see the implementation of the trail realised, stuff made and installed. I understand there are one or two formal procedures or permissions required from conservation and national woodland authorities to negotiate, but I'm told it looks likely at the moment.

Work has actually started in preparation already: The Radfall is an ancient track with raised banks either side, which runs right through this section of the woods, has seen a lot Kent Wildlife Trust Volunteers working to remove trees on a featured section of the track. Work has been carried out once a week for about a month to reveal just how wide this old road is and how high the banks are. They really stand out as mossy green at the moment.


Volunteers have worked hard to clear this ancient road called the Radfall

This road would have been often used by cattle drovers probably taking livestock into Canturbury for sale. That is what we will feature on the newly cleared area. 'A step back in time' whith a figure walking to market with some animals most likley pigs.



It is surprising how wide this track is, actually it's not a track, it's a road. 



I used the new site as a location to take photos of my 'Febuary Sticks'.

  
  

I'd forgotten I made these videos.

Untill I recieved an unexpected and belated comment on utube today. It was asking how long it took to paint the highland cattle?

The answer is I did not paint it all in one go, but if I added all the time together I would say at least a day to make and paint the background and a day to cut out and paint the cattle and ponies.

The Konic Ponies and Longhorn Cattle in the Blean are of great interest to me and Cosmo who can't stop himself barking at them. They both seem pretty laid back about him barking though.
I enjoyed making these ambiguious scenes of painted and real situations together. If I had time I would make more like them of other animals and even plants found within the blean.

A Walk Round The Trail

We spent the late morning and early afternoon walking round the woodland trail with representatives from Access Collaboration Ltd, to see if the proposals, arrangements and features could be improved in any way. Parking concerns were soon smoothed over and the anticipation, exploration and explanation of a realised trail became almost the only topic of our conversations all the way around.

A very nice walk, and the right descision not to bring Cosmo though.

KWT staff and Access Collaboration strolling around The Blean



Unofficial school party from Herne Bay High School





January Sticks









Completion of Insect Homes

We at the Hospital have now completed our bird boxes and the insect homes. As you can imagine there are many rules and regulations about photos, insurance, and placement of these finished works, and the facilities dept will finish the project for us.

But just talking to the staff there in that kind of informal feedback way of conversation while your working, it is apparent that the insect homes have been on display all over the Xmas and new year period. Several people from other organisations have commented on them and thought they were for sale. A kind of cottage industry insect homes supplier.

No this is a one off, but there has obviously been conversations about woodworking with similar organisations.

There were meant to be 5 bird boxes but I think one got used as a Xmas present!

So my it's my opportunity now to formally thank the staff at St. Martins for their generous help and support we would not have done this without it.

Staff showing the camera one of 5 completed bird boxes with relief designs carved into the wood.




Designed for  Bees living in the luxury loft apartments in bamboo canes
wood construction housing for the general insect population living on ground level apartments
Life style options for insects  preferring to live in the soil filled end 2 storey houses with painted windows
all properties have panoramic views of the hospital grounds.
The properties are very well aspected in this prestigious Canterbury location with Canterbury Golf Course minutes flying distance. Similar distances to good large open areas and playing  fields. 
Close by schools include:
Chaucer Technology Collage
Barton Court Grammar School
Canterbury Collage and the University Collage of Art and Design
Pilgrims Way Primary School

Making these ideal family homes for all insects provided completely free using resources from several charities. 

 Photos of the project are scarce but we did take several of the insect homes outside in the hospital grounds.


Completed insect homes in the hospital grounds 



anthropomorphic
projecting human characteristics onto the animal world
insects living in a Georgian Terrace!