Canoes for Stourhead project

We have been given two canoes by Langford Car Spares near Shaftesbury. We will use them in one of our installations next summer to be added to the "Stourhead will never forget" sculpture trail, commemorating the effect of World War 1  on the community.Serendipity strikes again, as it often does with our projects.

Horses meet the Unicorn in Scraptors' sculpturemad garden

War horses under attack

We will be creating two new installations next summer  at Stourhead for the National Trust for the sculpture trail "Stourhead will never forget" commemorating the effect of World War 1 on the community. One will commemorate the death of Harry Hoare, heir to the estate, killed rescuing horses in Palestine in 1917. Anthony has been in Lisbon where there was an exhibition of drawings by Adriano Sousa Lopes,  the Portuguese official war artist of World War 1.  In the Military Museum there are  huge paintings by him . One if of great  interest to us as it shows horses under attack. Also in the museum is a large sculpture by Delfim Mole on the same subject. Mole had  been a  wartime cavalry officer. 

Below a painting by Adriano Sousa Lopes, powerful in its symbolism. But in his drawings and paintings he did not shy away from showing  dead soldiers on the battlefield.

Horse in gasmask at Stourhead

We have added a sculpture of  horse's head in a gas mask to " Arcadia to Armageddon" installation at Stourhead in Wiltshire as part of the commemorative sculpture trail "Stourhead will never forget" about the effect of World War 1 on the community. We have been busy with final touches for the official launch.

We have added motifs to the pyramids. In the photo below starting from the red poppy and working diagonally backwards below is first the blue cornflower  This is the French equivalent of the poppy, being the symbol of French commemoration of the dead of the two world wars., Next is a representation of the statue of a soldier carrying a wounded comrade, the memorial to the dead of the Commonwealth at Gallipoli. Then the Turkish monument at Gallipoli, the Kannakale Martyrs memorial. We have added ancient Egyptian symbols: the ankh cross, representing eternal life, and the udjat eye, representing protection.

The pyramids represent the involvement of local Stourhead men of the Dorset Yeomanry in Gallipoli and Palestine in World War 1. Harry Hoare, heir to the estate was killed in battle near Jerusalem. As a very young man he had visited the pyramids in 1905 as a tourist in an attempt to improve his weak health.

 

The Last Tommy at Stourhead

We have created a small exhibition in the stable yard at Stourhead as a taster for our large installations around the estate. Anthony made the sculpture in 2008 using a World War 1 helmet found in his garden which  on the site of a World War 1 army camp, Shortly after he made it the Last Tommy Harry Patch died.

The small tableaux relate to the large installations  in the trail. The one immediately below relates to "Arcadia to Armageddon" in the woods.

The tableau above refers to the Gallipoli installation in the woods. The latter shows the "Anzac Sphinx" a natural formation at Gallipoli which was so named by the Australian and New Zealand troops.

Camel Train arrives at Stourhead in Wiltshire

Not a train of camels but a train with camels in it. This is our fourth installation at Stourhead, the National Trust property in Wiltshire. This one is  "Gallipoli and the Middle East."  This installation us based on a photograph in the Keep Military Museum in Dorchester. Many men from Stourhead and around served in the Dorset Yeomanry in those theatres of World War 1. The photo shows a line of railway carriages full of camels.

There is now a sculpture trail at Stourhead of our four installations with a brochure available. The trail is called  "Stourhead will never Forget." Below making the Camel Train, dodging the showers.

Pyramids arrive at Stourhead

We collected and set up pyramids at Stourhead. They will have motifs to represent the  World War 1 in the Middle East. This is one of our installations in our project for the National Trust "Stourhead Remembers."