Art Out West Exhibition 2024 – Student Carvings

This is a life size carving of my sons, llanwenog. He didn’t do well at the Royal Welsh but was used as a stud ram.

Carved in elm wood, l did capture a certain likeness although the wool was the biggest problem and, in the end, following Anthony’s advice l went for the shape, ignoring the wool details.

The misericords are copies of medieval church carvings (circa 1260). Two are from Exeter cathedral and the un-finished dragon is from Saint Davids. Misericords we’re carved from one piece of oak on the underside of pew seats enabling the monks to be propped up during the hour-long services. Being unseen, so to speak, the carvers were given free rein, with subjects ranging from murder to ogres and few were religious. The originals are far better than my copies, but l have much enjoyed doing them and would like one from each of the great regional cathedrals.

Tim Watts, woodcarver

I am Keeley Bear, rescued 4 years ago from a cage in a charity shop, where I had been abandoned.

My rescuer, Mary, took me to her home and made me feel wanted, loved and accepted… In so doing, a big part of her own childhood trauma and pain at fearing to rescue the teddy her mother threw away, has been healed.
This is why she chose me as her model for wood carving. In the making of my 2 ‘triplets’ in clay and Cedar of Lebanon, she has learnt many new skills: sculpting, use of different tools, new perspectives and great joy in creativity.
And now she has three of me!

Mary Bartlett, woodcarver

Wood and Geoscience has always inspired me and since all our domestic heat is through the woodburner I have probably dealt with more wood than most. I find its colours, textures, variety, tactility both absorbing and inspiring. Carving is one of human kind’s oldest crafts that I wanted to explore further.

Anthony is an exceptional tutor, very happy to pass on both his knowledge and skills and his experience and enthusiasm.

Everyone in class too is so helpful and pleasant and I very much enjoy our coffetime chats and cultured discussion with Anthony’s sculpture photographs, carvings and images. Encouragement is always to the fore so that any artistic flair one has is nurtured and developed. One is always surrounded by inspiring carvers and carvings in the process of development.

As a teacher of Geoscience myself, the magic and mystery of fossils, rocks and all things geological inspired these further attempts at creating carvings of which I am proud.

The ammonite was my second fossil carving, after the initial one of a trilobite, exhibited in 2019. Its symmetry and rib detail was challenging, but eventually it got done.

The pebble stack was such an enjoyable project and was inspired by those seen built at the back of beaches. It required less detailed carving than the ammonite and required no clay model as I could use natural pebbles glued together. However, the final outcome, after hours of sanding, was no less satisfying and inspiring.

The gecko reptile is again standing on my favourite base of rock and was my first attempt at a living creature; with its challenges of scale, form and movement.

My most recent carving is that of a guillimot and after taking a sabbatical from class, is almost complete, though is now requiring more advice from Anthony.

So it will be back to class next term.

Chris Evans, Wood carver

I had never considered myself to be artistic, creative or “good with my hands”.

There was a time when I enjoyed making Airfix models, but that was the sum total of my creative efforts. In the Summer of 2018, I decided to go along to a couple of the woodcarving taster sessions at the Carving Workshop in Stackpole. After initial nervousness (which seems daft looking back), I soon found that working with the mallet and chisel in my hands felt very comfortable and I enjoyed carving wood!

Anthony is an excellent and vastly experienced teacher and he guides you right through the creative process. He is always positive and encouraging. He doesn’t take over, but is there to give expert, ongoing advice on technique, effects of the grain, which chisel might be best, how to avoid or correct any mistakes, and more.

I was surprised to discover that there is usually little chat in the workshop, except when we occasionally wander over briefly to look at how a friend’s project is progressing. Like me, everyone seems to be engrossed in their work for the vast majority of the two hours. We are much more interactive as a group during our break for tea and biscuits and the discussions cover a wide variety of subjects and life experiences are shared.

In the last six years I have created fifteen woodcarvings and loved every minute of it. I also enjoy making the actual size model out of clay or plasticene, that we use as the basis for our 3D woodcarvings. As with the mallet in my hands, I was pleasantly surprised how much pleasure and satisfaction I feel when working with those materials. Most recently, I spent nearly ten hours making a plasticene model of a running Indian Rhino. I am now carving its twin in elm.

I have long since had a carving table and my own mallet & chisels at home. This was particularly useful during Covid. A friend was kind enough to give me a huge (13kg) piece of elm with a large burr, that he had kept in his workshop for over 40 years, wondering what he could make with it. After many hours on my patio in lockdown it became a very decorative bowl, which is included in the exhibition.

I have used a wide variety of wood – oak, elm and walnut are my favourites, with holly my least liked- and made different carvings. Early works included a relief carving of a woodpecker, when I was really surprised that I could make something as pleasing as that. My first 3D model was an oversize dog whelk, soon followed by a family trio of penguins to celebrate the birth of my grandson.

More recently, I have been carving figures, each about 30 cm high. My ‘Pembrokeshire Farmer in a Storm’ proved to be a real challenge but was finally completed. The next one resulted from a visit to Lichfield Cathedral where I really liked the Victorian carving in marble of Mary, especially the folds in her robes. This is also included in the Exhibition, as is my recently completed ‘Milford Mariner’ based on the large sculpture at Milford Haven.

Steve Moss, Woodcarver.