Marston House Sculpture Garden

I visited the magical sculpture garden in the grounds of Marston House near Frome in Somerset which will be open until October 4th as part of Somerset Arts Weeks. In the grounds, the stables, old bread ovens and other outbuildngs of the old aristocratic mansion , now the offices of a quarrying company, four artists have arranged sculptures and installations The heads are by Barry Cooper and are inspired by Cycladic sculptures - each summer Barry works on the Greek island of Paros. The bench is by Anthony Rogers.

Urchfont Manor Sculpture Exhibition Wiltshire

I visited the biennial sculpture exhibition at Urchfont Manor in Wiltshire and these were my two favourites. Dancing Pig by Jon Barret-Danes and Harmony by Michael Speller.

The show finishes on Sunday.

Bradford on Avon Festival

I went to Bradford On Avon to place a Harlequin and a Kettleheaded Man in the group sculpture show to take place this weekend as part of the Bradford on Avon Festival in Wiltshire. The venue is the large garden of elegant Wellclose House in Belcombe Road. There will be a great diversity of sculptures. On Friday evening as dusk falls, there will be illumination.

Chiswick Business Park

Last week my harlequins and I attended a Recycling Event in Chiswick Business Park in west London. Usually that means some landscaping but there really is a park at the centre of this one and you have no idea of it from the street. There is a waterfall and a lake. The whole complex is run along lines that are as green as one can possibly make it. Intelligent louvres overhang the buildings and control the heat of the buildings. The water for the lake and the plants is saved from the roofs.

Harlequins gig in Chiswick

I have been preparing my harlequins for a gig at a Recycling event organised by Breathing Spaces UK Chiswick Business Park. Among the happenings an attempt will be made on the record for recycling a bag of rubbish for the Guinness Book of Records. The harlequin on the left has been exhibited before but it is a debut for the one on the right. To make that one stable I added a pet curling round its feet; its head is a flint. The armatures of the harlequins are made from odds and ends. The moustache came from a vacuum cleaner. The covering of the sculptures is recycled glass and chopped up CD's used for permeable paving, applied with silicone.

Imber the derelict village on Salisbury Plain

I went to Imber today on Salisbury Plain as the church was open and I wanted in particular to see the rare mediaeval wall paintings. They were hidden behind scaffolding as the church is being restored. Imber in the 1930's was a village totally owned by the War Department, except the property of the churches and the pub, and the surrounding vast area used for military exercises which co-existed with farming. In 1943 the village was evacuated at 47 days notice to allow street fighting exercises and it has remained uninhabited ever since. In 1961 an unsuccessful campaign was launched to try and prevent the permanent closure of the roads and to get the village restored. (As a child I went on a 25 mile car demonstration on the subject.) As a concession the Army allows access to the village at certain times of the year. The photos show the old manor house, Imber Court and the church behind a fence - the Out of Bounds sign is an order to the army.

Dante's Inferno

A bonfire produced this image of Dante's Inferno in my garden.