Nomination for The Culture Awards

In the post the other day this arrived

enclosed with a letter gongratulatiing me and explaing this was the first of what is hoped to become an annual event to celebrate the rich cultural life in the district. It went on to say if I wanted to see information about this years winners then go to http://www.creativecanterbury.com/main.cfm?objectid=67

So congratulations to the winners and although it is my name is on the certificate, this is a partnership project and I have been working with several members of staff with The Kent Wildlife Trust who are enabling the Wildart Trail to happen. It is encouraging that the local authority recognises the efforts made by members of its community especially when times are difficult.

great spotted woodpeker

 

green woodpecker






 

three down one to go

Three of the four totem posts have now been completed and installed. I probably explained earlier that each post is a record of class work and exploration into woodland life by students at local Primary Schools.



Class 6 Churchill Herne Junior School



Class 6 Wallis Herne Junior School





Class 6 Szarbo Herne Junior School



More generally speaking items / events  for the Wildart Trail are beginning to happen these include entrance features, willow weaving workshops, seating, sculptures and more, these will unfold over the summer with some kind conclusion by autum 2011. I will post on this blog in much more detail as items are made, and events draw nearer.  Feedback about the trail so far has been positve and regular dog walkers have mentioned the increase in activity and are expectant !..........The main  improvements to the car park  have also been finished with parking for disabled visitors and much improved surfacing and demarcation, fencing and a pair of swankey new entrance signs.   

The Updated updated map

So here is the latest version of the trail map, which probably looks no different to the last one, but a tweek here and an adjustmant there, I think I might have even needed to move a tree at one point or a couple of red dots.


trail map showing features along the route

Canturbury City Council are hosting a networking event on the trail this Thurs 26th May. Things have started but most of it is not in place yet but I am looking forward to meeting friends and collegues talking about what will be installed while walking round. Other developments include possible sculptures with students from Christ Church University.

I have drawn up some initial ideas for two totem poles which will form the entrance feature showing animals that visitors will be likely to see. I have to say designing totem poles was a little harder than I anticipated. One pole had animals all with the same shaped ears and it was'nt working.

 



May Sticks. 'Living in fear of Arson',
a song title by Michele Shocked, which is true to say during this month in the woods, with large areas looking like scenes from sci fi movies





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'.