Anthony Wilson sculptor

Morphy Richards vacuum cleaner to morph as sculpture

2012-01-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

This is the remains of my new Morphy Richards vacuum cleaner which I will use as a head for a sculpture of a humanoid as it is suitably anthropomorphic. It is useless as a vacuum cleaner because the tube for conveying the dust to the cylinder curves inside the head and is therefore impossible to clear if it gets blocked which it will do sooner or later. I tried wrangling with Kand Co who sold it to me. They passed me on to Morphy Richards who told me to unblock it with wire. Believe me it is impossible. So Morphy will have to morph. It makes a good head for one of a little tribe of humanoids I will be making for a sculpture trail with my fellow artists of the Scraptor Sculpture Group at the Magdalen Project n 2012.

The Joust by Moonlight

2012-01-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

A very mild winter with my first daffodil and aconites out about a month early. Even the moonlit nights are not frosty. This is the Joust in my sculpturemad garden lit by the moon.

My sculpture mad garden by moonlight

2011-12-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

I thought I would try and take some photos on a bright moonlit night. Very difficult as I could not t see any image in my camera and just had to point and hope for the best. The body of the egret was the petrol tank of motorbike.

Sculpture an National Botanic Garden Dublin

2011-10-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

Interesting sculpture exhibition in the National Botanic Gardens Dublin. On until end of October.

Egret comes home

2011-10-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

My Egret has come come home from the Scraptors Sculpture Trail at Stourhead. There it was in a large pond. In my garden it has to make do with a smaller one. The body was the petrol tank of a motorbike.

Goodbye Stourhead and the Summer

2011-10-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

After a long Indian summer the leaves fall on the water round my Egret and it is time for the Beyond the Garden Gate sculpture trail of the Scraptors Sculpture Group to leave. We packed it all up yesterday with the help of an army of National Trust machines and helpers.

Stoberry Park Wells

2011-09-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is the view from Stoberry Park of Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Tor. The garden with sculpture is open for another week as part of Somerset Arts Weeks. I lay on the grass to take this image of one by Ian Marlow.

Rainbow over my Procession

2011-09-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

I have been adding to the Procession in my Field. An old wheelbarrow became another creature on the far left and a ventilation shaft a tall figure. I rushed out in a shower to catch the rainbow.

Ventilation shaft transformed

2011-09-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

I was given this ventilation shaft. It has become a Figure with the addition of eyes. I have placed it with a Centaur in my procession in my field..

The Scraptor Sculpture Trail at Stourhead

2011-09-06T00:23:00.000-07:00

The Scraptors are resting a bit after installing a sculpture trail at Stourhead, the National Trust property in Wiltshire. Above my Hercules and Serpent . The Ancient Greek Boy Wonder dispatched them from his infancy. Below The Eye a joint work with my fellow Scraptor Paul Boswell. On the tree trunk a Chameleon by Scraptor Fiona Campbell. The trail continues through September.

The Frogs mock King Heron at Stourhead

2011-08-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

With my fellow Scraptors I have been busy installing the Beyond the Garden Gate sculpture trail at Stourhead the National Trust property in Wiltshire. This tableau refers to the Fable of Aesop in which the Frogs asked Zeus for a King. He sent a Heron but they mocked him. So Zeus sent a snake which ate them

Installing Sculpture at Stourhead

2011-08-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

With my fellow Scraptors I have been installing work at Stourhead for our Sculpture Trail which will be in place throughout September. This is my Egret meets a Creature from the Deep and my Giant Flying Barn Owl

Collecting Horse for Stourhead

2011-08-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

I helped Paul Boswell and Rachel Macleay collect their Horse from Horseworld near Bristol to take to Stourhead, the National Trust property in Wiltshire, where it will be in the Scraptors' Sculpture Trail Beyond the Garden Gate throughout September. The horsebox was decorated by Paul for a neighbour. Paul has wielded his brush on murals for clients in Shanghai and Helsinki as well as nearer places such as Bristol and London. You can see Rachel holding the Horse in place on the lifting gear.

Spider for Stourhead

2011-08-05T00:58:00.000-07:00

This is my spider ready for the Scraptors Sculpture Trail at Stourhead Gardens throughout September. It will be advance on a trapped bug. the web 20 feet wide will hang between two trees at Stourhead. The body was an ironing board. I bent it head to make it vertical.

Spider for Stourhead

2011-07-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

This is an old iron board about to become a spider in an eight metre wide web that will hang at Stourhead in Wiltshire in the Scraptors sculpture trail throughout September. It will be about to pounce on a trapped insect.

Barn Owl Flying

2011-07-18T01:39:00.001-07:00

I have hung up my Barn Owl Flying made from a car fender found while I was walking the dogs. There was a heap of burnt out out car bits. This will be exhibited at Stourhead, Wiltshire in September with other owls by my fellow Scraptors in our sculpture trail round the woods.

View from my window

2011-05-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have revamped my Mythological Procession and this is how it looks from my bedroom. Until June 5th 2011 my sculpture garden is open to the public in the Wylye Valley Art Trail in Wiltshire.

Dali in the City

2011-05-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

Quite by chance I came across the Dali in the City exhibition near Moorgate in London and snapped this image. The ground floor of an office block had been taken over by Dalis.

Spider for Stourhead

2011-05-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

I went to Stourhead the National Trust garden in Wiltshire to measure the curtains figuratively. As part of a sculpture trail I am creating with my fellow members of the Scraptors Sculpture Group to be on show throughout the month of September 2011 I will make a giant spider like the one shown here I made for a client in Sussex. It will hang between these two trees at Stourhead pictured here. There are eight metres between the two trees

Long Necked Bird

2011-04-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

I have just completed the Long Necked Bird. Its neck is about four feet long. Busy making new stuff and improving the garden for my opening in the Wylye Valley Art Trail in Wiltshire that runs from May 28th to June 5th 2011.

Spring in my field

2011-04-22T15:22:00.001-07:00

There are sheep back in my orchard and the apples are blossoming in a very warm spring. This is my Egyptian Frieze. Sekhmet , Horus and Anubis walk in procession between pyramids.

Heron sculpture

2011-04-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this heron sculpture at Eastleach House in the Cotswolds. It gave me ideas for making a sculpture of a heron. With my fellow artists from the Scraptor sculpture group I am making a flock of herons to stand in a lake at Stourhead, the National Trust property in a sculpture trail that will be on show throughout September 2011.

Mural by AnthonyWilson, Paul Boswell and Rachel Macleay

2011-04-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

The three of us are making a mural some forty feet wide at the back of my garden, a mixture of sculpture and mural. Paul does the painting. This will be on public view in the Wylye Valley Art Trail in Wiltshire from May 28th to June 5th 2011.

Work in Progress on Mural

2011-03-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

I am creating a mural which combines sculpture and painting with fellow artists Paul Boswell and Rachel Macleay in my garden. This is one section of it. It will extend about forty feet along a hut and fence. It will be on show in the open studio event of the Wylye Valley Art Trail from May 28th to June 5th 2011 in Wiltshire

The Frogs mock King Heron

2011-03-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Paul Boswell, Rachel Macleay and myself set this tableau up in my field. According to Aesop's Fables the Frogs asked Zeus for a King to rule them. He sent a King Heron but the Frogs mocked him. So then Zeus sent a snake which ate them. Rachel and Paul made the Heron. I made the Frogs for the Love London Recycled Sculpture Show at the WWT London Wetland Centre in 2009 which I also curated. The Heron and Frogs will be on display in my sculpturemad garden from May 28th ot June 5th 2011 as part of the Wylye Valley Art Trail in Wiltshire and then in the woods at Stourhead, the National Trust property in Wiltshire the sculpture trail which Paul, Rachel, myself and Fiona Campbell, the four members of the Scraptors Sculpture Group are creating. The brief from the National Trust was to reflect aspects of the site and its history. The monuments of the Stourhead are steeped in classical mythology. There are also herons and frogs there.

Elephantine Monster by Paul Boswell and Anthony Wilson

2011-03-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

I found the elephant like head - a piece from inside a car - some while ago abandoned on the verge at a service station on the M3 motorway. My artistic buddy Paul Boswell has painted it and around it. We are covering this hut and some fencing with sculpture and painting and it will be open for public view in my two acre sculpture mad garden in the Wylye Valley Art Trail in Wiltshire from May 28th to June 5th 2011.

Medusa reflected in a mirror

2011-03-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

I had the idea ages ago of creating a Medusa's Head which one would see first in a mirror. You will recall that Perseus was obliged to cut her head off looking in a mirror to avoid being petrified. I have finally got round to it. This is on the door of a shed in my garden behind bushes. This and a whole lot more will be open in my sculpture mad garden for the Wylye Valley Art Trail in Wiltshire from May 28th to June 5th 2011.

New gate

2011-02-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

I have been upgrading a rather neglected part of my garden. I have made a new flower bed and made the gate from some bits of scrap iron in the skip outside a company. My garden will be open for the Wylye Valley Art Trail in Wiltshire from May 28th to June 5th 2011. By then the plants will have sprouted. A lady faces a unicorn. According to mediaeval legend unicorns were very fond of ladies.

My Frog at Stourhead for photoshoot

2011-02-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

With my collaborators the Scraptor Sculptor Group. I took my Frog to Stourhead, the National Trust garden in Wiltshire for a photo shoot. In September it will feature in an exhibition in the woods next to the lake

The Scraptors at Stourhead

2011-02-07T02:03:00.000-08:00

I have joined Fiona Campbell, Paul Boswell and Rachel Macelay to form a group which we are calling the Scraptors as we all make sculpture from scrap. We will offer themed landscape trails. This was our photoshoot at Stourhead, the iconic National Trust property in Wiltshire , where we have our first "gig", a sculpture trail in the adjacent woods. Here we pose in heron masks by the Heron made by Paul and Rachel.

Head made from car bits

2011-01-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

I made this head with two bits from the fronts of cars, one found beside the road and the other, the tongue, donated by a neighbour who had had a minor crash in his car. The head, thanks to its eyes, has a faintly native North American look to it.

My Frog Moby goes to California

2011-01-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

The Internet is a wonderful thing. I made Moby the Frog in 2009 for the Love London Recycled Sculpture Show which I curated at WWT London Wetland Centre. The image is to be used by BCS Recycling Specialists in a brochure being handed out at a medical industry conference in Anaheim California. The frog is covered with dummy mobile phones ones used for dislpay in shops. The mouth is a flipped over TV satellite dish.

A Serpent for Hercules

2011-01-13T08:31:00.000-08:00

Work in progress for an Infant Hercules strangling a Serpent to be exhibited in the woods at Stourhead Gardens in Wiltshire in September. The exhibition, in which I will be collaborating with three other artists, will reflect the themes of the classical English romantic garden. This particular piece will pick up on the Classical mythology of the sculptures in the temples dotted around the lake.

Owls Flying

2011-01-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

On a windy day my two owls appear to be flying.

My monsters in the snow

2010-12-21T11:26:00.000-08:00

More snow reducing the UK to shambles. All calm in my garden.

Homage to the Beatles in Kilburn

2010-12-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

I saw this this the other day in a bleak part of north London on a bleak winter day.

Hoar Frost

2010-12-07T09:51:00.001-08:00

Ghastly cold but gorgeous to look at. My field in the hoar frost.

Snowed in Frog

2010-12-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

The snow has caused chaos throughout the UK. This my frog sculpture, a metre or so high, in the snow.

My garden in the snow

2010-11-28T11:43:00.000-08:00

Unusual to have snow in November in Wiltshire. The view from my bedroom.

Monstrous Tree

2010-11-26T23:33:00.000-08:00

I am planning a sculpture park with three other artists in a country estate. This is an enormous Found Object which with the addition of an eye will make an excellent monster. There is ice on the pond in this photo but normally there is a double image in the water.

Sink Face

2010-11-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

This sink came from a nearby building site and easily became a face.

King's Place London

2010-11-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

King's Place is a newish arts centre behind King's Cross an area going up in the world. This is a sculpture about four feet high by Abigail Fallis.

Autumn Colour Stourhead

2010-10-25T01:28:00.000-07:00

On a perfect autumn day what better than to go and see the autumn colour at Stourhead Gardens in Wiltshire. The place was heaving with happy photographers.

Pavlova dancing

2010-10-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the bus at Victoria in London I noticed this dancer on top of the Victoria Palace Theatre and wondered why I had never noticed it before. I clearly had not been that way since 2006 when Wikipedia tell me it was installed as a replica of one erected in 1911 and taken down in World War II in case it fell on somebody in the bombing. It shows Pavlova. What fun they had with buildings before the dread Puritanism of the Modern Movement in architecture infected the world. The modern National Theatre sites like a grim Atlantic Wall bunker with it back to the Thames.

The Dancer for TVE

2010-10-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

I have donated this table top sculpture The Dancer to be auctioned at a charity dinner at the Kuwaiti Embassy on November 10th in London in aid of TVE Television for the Environment, a charity specialising in making and distributing films about the environment across the world. The sculpture was made from a an old lamp stand recovered from the town dump. The coating is black copper slag, the head a piece of driftwood from the beach near Weston-super-Mare, the hands are old bottle openers. I might have called him The Skier.

Kingston Lacy Tree Root

2010-10-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

I snapped this tree root appropriately in the Japanese Garden in an old quarry in the grounds of Kingston Lacy House in Dorset. It looks like some crouching monster.

Blue Bird

2010-10-18T03:29:00.000-07:00

I have added a blue bird to this tableau as well as the small figure facing the camera. It is rather a sinister bird, some sort of vulture.

Monster Hedge in Indian Summer

2010-10-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

I took this two days ago in my garden in the Indian Summer which now seems to be over as it is quite chilly. The hedge is beech. The yellow flowers are Rudbeckia good for late colour.

Imber Ranges

2010-10-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

I exercise my terriers on the edge of Imber Army Ranges. They used to bark at helicopters but take no notice now. Squaddies with huge back packs still send them demented. The mound is a prehistoric one. The Army looks after the numerous prehistoric sites very well with markers (which you can just see in this photograph) to keep out tanks and other heavy vehicles. The sites are all preserved but never likely to be excavated unless universal peace breaks out one day. The helicopter flew over me after I took this and maybe because I had. They are all rather twitchy up there - on another occasion the byway was blocked by a crash barrier. I parked before walking the dogs.. On leaving I had to drive my car briefly towards the barrier to reverse. The squaddie, with whom I had chatted earlier, pointed his very big gun at the car. Well I suppose they were on high alert and terrorists come in all forms including local dog walkers. Would he have shot me or just my tyres if I had continued?

Indian Summer

2010-10-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

It has been a glorious Indian summer despite bouts of heavy rain. This part of my garden springs to life in October after being dull for a couple of months. The stainless steel sculpures are made with industrial lamps from a recycling centre in north London. I can do abstract.

Pond restored

2010-10-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

My ponds totally dried out it in the long dry spell in the summer. The water is back and I have cut out a lot of vegetation - literally with a saw through the matted roots. So my frogs again sit by water as frogs should.

Somerset Open Studios

2010-10-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

Still two days to catch Somerset Open Studios and see this dragonfly by Fiona Campbell and the centaur by Ian Marlow along with other sculpture by them in their intriguing gardens.

Siege of the Wall

2010-09-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

I have added one last piece to this tableau - the snake and painted the stone monsters in the crevice. Here anything blue is sinister.

Newport Wales

2010-09-28T02:30:00.000-07:00

Newport in South Wales, no longer an industrial powerhouse has interesting artworks on its streets as an element in its attempts to rejuvenate itself. It works as it is fun to around.

Mediaeval wall painting Imber Church

2010-09-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

Imber Village on Salisbury Plain, normally closed for army training, was open at the weekend and I went to see the recently restored traces of mediaeval wall paintings. The presence of these in such a remote tiny village in the Middle Ages points to their ubiquity. These images are said to represent Avarice. The man with a horn on his head is the Devil.

Powerscourt near Dublin

2010-09-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

I recenly visited this world famous garden. My parents honeymooned here during World War II so I have always had a certain romantic feeling about the place. Laurence Olivier and others were filming Henry V in the park at the time.

Giant's Foot and Giant's Causeway

2010-09-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Nature is the best sculptor. Above a giant's foot some eight feet high near the famous pillars of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

More stuff for sculpturemad garden

2010-08-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

Paul Boswell and Rachel Macleay came over and added some paintings and sculptures to my garden. The insect was made by Rachel from a cat's eye. Paul painted on a piece of metal. I have turned an arbour into an art gallery.

Hedge monster

2010-08-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have been busy cutting my hedges. An alien has landed on this pyramid - the New Age people believe pyramids were designed to guide them in from space.

Micra Monster

2010-08-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

I recycled an old Micra bonnet and two dustbin lids to create this monster on my lawn. The bonnet was irretrievably dented when I drove into a towbar - at very slow speed -at a roundabout.

The Art of Recycling Petersfield

2010-08-20T02:49:00.000-07:00

I took part in the Art of Recycling Day in Petersfield. There was a man dressed in old cans. The wasps were very attracted to the smell of dregs in the cans and he had been stung on previous occasions wearing this coat.

Decorating the old woodshed

2010-08-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Paul Boswell and I are creating a jungle scene with sculpture and painting. Work in progress.

A man fighting a crocodile

2010-08-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

I have recycled some old sculptures and changed them a bit to create this tableau on the wall of a sort of man fighting a sort of crocodile. The crocodile has the gun in its mouth and it is not clear who will win this battle. Perhaps the man has run out of bullets and the crocodile will have him or he will kill the croc.

White Owl

2010-07-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

I finished a white owl with a black face to sit near by black owl with a white face.

Odeon Cinema

2010-07-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

I walked past the Odeon Cinema in Salisbury for decades assuming it was mock Tudor until showing some French guests around I wandered in. The foyer is actually an original late mediaeval Hall, the Hall of John Halle. These are some of the furnishings of it.

Crop Circle White Sheet Hill Wiltshire 2010

2010-07-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

The media were a bit coy about what exactly is conveyed in this creation. You can see it from a public car park. Fun for us but less amusing for the farmer especially as romping couples will probably add to the crop damage.

Art from the New World

2010-07-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

This was the installation made by Mike Stilkey with 2000 books, mostly the memoirs of Terry Wogan, which would otherwise have been pulped. It stands in the foyer of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery to advertise the exhibition Art from the New World on until August 22nd. Brash, surrealist and fun.

2010-07-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Man From the Moon

2010-07-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

This stands about five feet high and I set it in my garden with woods behind. Made with stuff from the local recycling yard.

Not a crop circle Cley Hill

2010-07-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year again when patterns appear on the wheat fields of Wiltshire. This one is below Cley Hill near Warminster. The Hill has international celebrity as a vantage point for spotting UFO's and I directed some French tourists to le crop circle. Not a circle this time.

Sussex topiary

2010-07-09T00:33:00.000-07:00

Another amazing day with the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, this time looking at gardens in Sussex.

Painting my garage

2010-07-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

This is Paul Boswell in action painting my garage. doors. He has taken as his theme the golden Inca style cut out spread eagle which I placed there some time ago. He more often paints walls.

Norfolk Gardens

2010-06-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

I am recently back from a marvellous tour of Norfolk gardens with the European Boxwood and Topiary Society. Like being in heaven for four days.

Pegasus by Paul Boswell and Rachel Macleay

2010-06-01T02:22:00.000-07:00

The last sculpture to arrive at the Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition at Whitchurch near Bristol which continues until November 1st 2010. The body is made of scrap bits of metal and the wings are old umbrellas.

Beer Bottle Top Horse

2010-06-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

We installed Gilbert Whyman's Beer Bottle Top Horse at the Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition which is on until November 1st 2010 at Horseworld, Whitchurch near Bristol with 36 equine related sculptures and one mural on two old doors. The exhibition is a mixture of conventional and wacky, this one being on the wacky end.

Build up of Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition

2010-05-14T11:27:00.001-07:00

Judy Boyt's JCB arrived at Horseworld Horse Sanctuary near Bristol for the Horseworld Sculpture Exhibiton that will run from May 23rd to November 1st 2010. Fibreglass copy of a bronze commissioned by Sir Anthony Bamford.

More sculptures for Horseworld Sculpture Show

2010-05-13T11:56:00.001-07:00

Busy building up Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition at Horseworld horse and donkey sanctuary near Bristol. Above one of the jigsaw bits - about a metre wide - painted on a sponge mattress by Andrew De Friesz, evoking the cave paintings of Lascaux. They are scattered round this patch of thornbush. The effect is similar to picking out cave paintings in the dark. Andy uses unconventional materials. A former chef at the Ritz, he made a corset for the couturier Jean Paul Gaultier out of biscuits. Below my Lady and the Unicorn, made from recycled bits and pieces and covered with granules of recycled glass. In mediaeval mythology unicorns were very fond of ladies and they were often depicted together, most famously in the tapestries in the Cluny Museum in Paris. The Chinese believed unicorns were brightly coloured - I don't know about bright blue but that's artistic licence. The lady was a mannequin off a skip.

Tom Hill's Trotting Horse arrives at Horseworld

2010-05-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

I spent the day at Horseworld near Bristol building up the Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition which I am curating and which will run from May 23rd to November 1st 2010. One of sculptures to arrive was the amazing lifesized Trotting Horse made by Tom Hill with old horseshoes.

Paul Boswell paints a horse on two old doors

2010-05-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Paul paints with astonishing speed and could have done this in half an hour but spun it out to three hours as a performance at the Open Day at Horseworld near Bristol. It will appear along with a couple of horse sculptures by him and Rachel Macleay in the Horseworld Sculpture Show from May 23rd to November 1st 2010.

Open Day Horseworld Bristol

2010-05-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

These show Gilbert Whyman making his Beer Bottle Top Horse which will be covered with beer bottle tops and will be one of the forty odd sculptures on show at the Horseworld Sculpture Show near Bristol from May 23rd to November 1st 2010. He was making it during Open Day at Horseworld a fun day of horse-related and other events.

Wacky artist's garden

2010-05-04T00:23:00.001-07:00

All sorts of things lurk in back gardens behind conventional facades and this Fallen Women and Angel are in that of self confessed "with an element of wacky" Lois La Barbera.
still time to see her artwork, including pottery, in the Cloth Road Open Studios event in West Wiltshire http://www.clothroadartists.com/ On until Sunday May 9th 2010.

Wiltshire Farmstead Survey Project

2010-04-18T10:43:00.001-07:00

I went on a day as a volunteer with the Wiltshire Farmstead Survey Project. You never know what may be lurking in an old shed and in this one was a Second World War jeep in fine condition. The other shot shows the interior of an eighteenth century shed which became a milking parlour in the late nineteenth centrury. The eighteenth century diagonal boards are for sarking - insulation - as is the modern plastic.

Spring in my Garden

2010-04-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

After a long cold winter, the coldest for thirty years, a cold late spring but at least spring. The yellow forsythia of early spring is cheery sight. The body of the blue sculpture was made with a motorbike bit I found on a Welsh mountain roadside.

Perry's Recycling Paper Sausage Machine

2010-03-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

I went on a guided tour of the paper recycling plant at Perry's Marston Magna in Somerset. I was intrigued by their machine shown here above for turning millions of tiny paper dots produced by computer printing into "sausages" about four inches long . This is done purely by pressure and they come out of this tube. The "sausages" cannot be recycled as such but can be used to bulk up other recycled paper

Hobby horse for Horseworld Sculpture Exhibiton at Horseworld near Bristol

2010-03-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

Gavin Darby delivered his Hobby Horse to my house. It will will go in the Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition at Horseworld near Bristol from May 23rd to November 1st. Hobbyhorses were children's toys; they "rode" a stick with a horse's head, sometimes with wheels attached. Larger versions also featured in festivals as they still do at Minehead in Somerset every May.

Horses by Jill Tweed

2010-03-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

An idyllic day driving through the early spring sunshine to see Jill Tweed's studio in Oxfordshire. She is going to exhibit these three horses in the Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition at Horseworld horse sanctuary near Bristol this summer.

Africa House sculptures

2010-02-25T23:03:00.000-08:00

It is worth looking up in cities. I have long been intrigued by these sculptures on the top of Africa House in High Holborn, London showing British Imperialism at its most confident. I took these snaps from the top of a bus. Britannia rules over a continent portrayed as a picturesque shooting and fishing estate. An African staggers under the weight of ivory tusks and a white man in a pith helmet has shot an elephant. With binoculars one can spot a fishing rod in the ensemble. The lion looks pretty alive but then he features in the British coat of arms. Beautifully carved.

Monster in River Wylye Wiltshire

2010-02-17T12:21:00.000-08:00

I have always been fascinated by accidental simulacra in nature, the chance likeness of trees, clouds, plants etc to other things. This is the head of some strange creature swimming in the River Wylye in Wiltshire, actually a protruding stump of a tree fallen in the river and stuck by the bank. There are a lot of deliberate simulacra lurking in paintings of all epochs, often apparently unnoticed even by art critics who spend their lives poring over them - for example rocks shaped like God the Father behind a Madonna and Child in a very famous painting in London's National Gallery.

Frederick the Frog goes into service for London Community Resources Network

2010-02-09T02:15:00.000-08:00

The London Community Resource Network asked to use the upper image for the home page of their website and I naturally agreed. Frederick was my first frog, standing about a metre high, which I made in a frantic two weeks for London Zoo in December 2007 to publicise the forthcoming Year of the Frog, a campaign to save the world's amphibians. The lower image shows it half made. (The mouth was a television dish flipped over in half.) The LCRN campaigns with great panache for a more sustainable capital city.

Unicorn

2010-01-31T12:41:00.000-08:00

I finished my Unicorn. It stands about a metre and a half high. I made the armature from odds and ends including a bit of a lawn mower and the bottom of an old bath tub, the latter providing a stable base. I used tennis balls for the eyes. The covering is granules of silver granite donated by the generous firm of Sureset which makes permeable resin paving. The red of eyes is basalt and the black is copper slag from the same source. The Unicorn will be accompanied by a Lady as in the tapestries in the Cluny Museum in Paris. They will be in the Horseworld Sculture Exhibition at Horseworld horse sanctuary near Bristol which I am curating - on from May 23rd to November 1st.

Ben Dearnley at Horseworld

2010-01-28T03:01:00.001-08:00

I went to Horseworld horse sanctuary near Bristol to disuss the sculpture exhibition there in the summer which I am curating. I met Ben Dearnley to discuss sites and am delighted we will be exhibiting his piece in alabaster which shows Lee Pearson OBE nine times Paralympic gold dresage champion on one side and a horse's head on the other.

Ston Easton Park Gardens

2010-01-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

I visited the fantastic Ston Easton Park in Somerset, set round a Palladian house impeccably furnished as a hotel and with charming staff. The park was laid out by Humphrey Repton from 1793. with a boring river turned into cascades. The lower photo shows a tree fallen on the remains of the grotto. It looks like a dinosaur lying down. The top photo shows the ice house. The von Essen hotel chain spends a fortune on antiques and decor - shame it can't spend a minimal sum on maintaining the important garden buildings in an outstanding historic garden. The grotto must have gone years ago but the icehouse is still intact but the ivy and the saplings will destroy it in a year or so.

Racehorses

2010-01-26T12:26:00.000-08:00

I drove across Salisbury Plain, swarming with tanks and buzzards, to see the sculpture of Judy Boyt who will exhibit in the Horseworld Sculpture Exhibition at Horseworld near Bristol which I am curating . This will run between May 23rd and November 1st this year. In an enchanted wood are lifesized sculptures such as these racehorses.

Frogs come home

2010-01-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

My frogs were at the Love London Recycled Sculpture Show at WWT London Wetland Centre but had to be moved because of a reorganisation of the gardens. I have put them back by my pond. Good to see them every morning when I get up and look out of the window.

Ceramics one day course at Bower Ashton

2010-01-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

A blissful day in delightful company at Bower Ashton Campus Bristol on a one day course learning about ceramics organised for arts profesionals by Devon Guild of Craftsmen. This was one I made by throwing bands of colour on the stainless steel plate and then accentuating the simulacra with scratched lines. There are three faces.

London Wetland Centre Love London Recycled Sculpture Show

2010-01-16T23:10:00.000-08:00

I went up to WWT the London Wetland Centre, the wildfowl reserve in Barnes, to help make a film of the Love London Recycled Sculpture Show which I curated. Ron den Daas from Canada is shown below adjusting his Golden Tree a.k.a What's it worth. This refers to the myth of King Midas who had his wish that everything he touched should turn to gold. Ron has painted plastic bottles gold with widlfowl depicted on each to hang from the tree made with old pipes. He wielded the camera and I spoke. Fortunately the planes to nearby Heathrow were on a different flight path while we did it. I also met there another of the exhibitors, Gilbert Whyman. This was a photograph of his Crocodile which I took in the autumn. Today there was ice and therefore no reflections. Gilbert and I discussed ideas for horse sculptures in the Horseworld sculpture exhibition I am curating in the summer at the Horseworld horse sanctuary near Bristol. We plan something that can include an element of public performance for the Open Day there on May 9th.

Garden in the Snow

2010-01-14T23:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it started to thaw but I caught these images in my garden in time. The Penguins at least were happy. I went to Bristol to talk to Arts and Business, a charity that acts as a sort of marriage broker between the two, and had a fruitful meeting. I popped into Bristol Museum to look at depictions of horses to help me with a unicorn I am making. A marvellous cast small cast of a statue of William 111 on horseback by Rysbrack was most useful.

Moby the Frog

2010-01-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

Out of the blue I was asked by Emily Murray in Austin USA if i would agree to my sculpture Moby the Frog appearing in an article on the Top 10 Most Amazing and Creative Recycled Art Displays on the Info Barrel website. So he now appears there in very distinguished company. At the moment Moby is in the Love London Recycled Sculpture Show at WWT London Wetland Centre until April 5th 2010. The armature of Moby includes the insides of computers and of a lawn mower. A TV satelite dish, flipped over in half, provides the mouth . The skin was made with 500 mobile phones provided by Regenersis plc a company that recycles them.

Madison Who's Who

2010-01-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

An odd phone call from Madison's Who's Who in New York from a charming man who said I had been chosen for inclusion in this tome. It seemed odd that he knew nothing about me, odder that I should be so chosen He invited me to look up their website while we talked. That was his mistake. Google produced at top of the list for Madison's Who's Who entries on scam.com which persuaded me that it might be best not to continue the conversation. The power of Google! I added a post to scam.com

Heavy frost

2010-01-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

A couple of images of a heavy frost. A sculpture in my frozen pond. A mundane view of the public conveniences in Warminster made magical by the ice.