This is a series of animal carvings I have been commissioned to work on over the last few months during the lovely long hot summer of 2022. The images are carved directly into the bark of living trees, extending either side of a private drive.

This has been an unusual project requiring the carving of living trees.

In some of the carvings I have used the living bark as a feature, taking special care not to completely isolate the bark from the living cambium.

So far, 9 carvings have been completed with a further 7 remaining. It's quite a task!

Before work started, it was decided to take advantage of the sunlight. Each animal has a shaft of sunlight to highlight the sculpture for most of the day, which is almost like an individual spotlight.

The tree features have to be considered before work starts and in many cases voids, burrs and tree knots have to be incorporated into the design features.

The tree species I have been working on are horse chestnut, beech and red oak.

Exposing the living tree after bark removal will encourage oxidisation of the new green wood. Red oaks will soon darken as the evidence of tanin is exposed. In the case of the badger, a dark stripe has appeared from the nose to the ears. This is normally not acheievable unless hand coloured.

As time goes by and the air dries the carvings, natureal cracks will appear, and nature will add a further patina over time.

It has been an absolute pleasure to get stuck into my latest series 'Woodland Flora' which takes inspiration from some of my favourite trees and plants such as horse chestnut and wood sorrel.

I've used a standard block of Quebec Yellow pine to create a wall mounted relief form.

All off the pieces are being prepared in readiness for my next exhibition at Gallery@12 Eccleshall, Staffordshire, throughout March 2022. It would be great to see you there!

I've been very busy during the latest Covid lockdown working on some new techniques and a series of new work. 

The first in the series is made from a large single piece of Iroko about 2 feet wide.  It would have been a massive tree!  I've been staring at it in the garage for about 25 years wondering what to do with it.  The wood came from the last barrel maker in the West Midlands (thomas Trevis Smith) who offered me any pieces of wood I wanted when he retired, and this piece has been with me ever since!

As it is such a well seasoned piece of wood, it is incredibly heavy and hard to work with.

It was a real pleasure to be commissioned to produce a new carving to go in the home of my client on their new kitchen roof beam. The wood sculpture was commissioned to capture the essence of the four family dogs, and was to be immortalised in pride of place on their new kitchen roof truss.

Before and after shots of my lockdown project carving in cherry wood.