Owl Tree at Stourhead

Back at Stourhead installing stuff for the Beyond the Garden Gate sculpture trail to be in place throughout September. Paul painted an owl on the Owl Tree which has owl sculptures on it. The two little owls in the holes above Paul's painting are by Anthony made with recycled glass.. The flying owl in the lower image is a sculpture made from a recycled car fender by Anthony. In the distance it looks like a real bird to the confusion of twitchers.

One of the themes of the trail is the legends of Ancient Greece and Rome which inspired the Hoares, creators of the iconic landscape garden. The owl was revered as a symbol of wisdom in Ancient Greece.

Work in Progress at Stourhead

The Scraptors are hard at work at Stourhead. The Frogs mock King Heron is now in place with Frogs by Anthony and Heron by Paul and Rachel. It alludes to the Fable of Aesop in which the Frogs ask Zeus for a King and he sends them a Heron. The Frogs mock the Heron so he sends a snake which eats them. Below Paul paints a tree while Rachel stands on the bottom of the ladder. These will be in a sculpture trail throughout September.

Below, the Scraptors in full waders to avoid more wet, silty experiences.  Amphibian goes into the far lake (Rachel and Paul), Fiona adds weight to her Heron and her Chameleon gets installed on it's resting place - an old dead, mossy, fallen tree overlooking the lake, with the help of NT helpers, Fiona's son and Jack (vjultra), our in-house photographer.

Scraptors install more works in Stourhead Sculpture Trail

The Scraptors got very wet and muddy installing Herons in one of the ponds at Six Wells on the National Trust property of Stourhead for the sculpture trail to be in place throughout September. Above is Anthony's Egret meets a creature from the Deep.  Fiona's large scrap steel Heron was a bigger job to install and a great relief when it was in - see images below of both Herons being installed. 

Below is Anthony's Giant Barn Owl Flying and Fiona's Copper Owl in a large dead tree. Paul is going to paint the whole tree to resemble an owl and it reflects the Ancient Greek veneration of owls as symbols of Wisdom. Other owl sculptures  have been placed in the tree by Paul and Rachel. One of the themes of the trail is the classical mythology represented in the artworks in the house and garden of Stourhead. .

BBC Somerset radio interview

Fiona will be discussing the Stourhead Trail on BBC Somerset radio on Wednesday 24th around 11am if you are interested in listening.


Here's the link: 
BBC Somerset radio interview with Emma Britton
The interview starts at 2:07.16 into the show.

Preparing for second installation day at Stourhead

Time always flies much faster when you have loads to do!  All those last minute bits and pieces in preparation for the Trail at Stourhead seem to be gobbling up time.  We now have less than a fortnight left to complete and install all remaining pieces (over 70).  Next week is our major installation week.  The Herons and Owls will go in next, as they require some complex manoeuvres into lakes and up a huge old tree.  Fiona's Heron is now freestanding and awaiting transition to Stourhead - having recently had its strut extensions welded on.  Bolted to its base for easier transport,  it will still be quite a mission to get into the lake!

The Scraptors' Horse at Stourhead

 

This is the lifesized Horse made by Paul and Rachel from all sorts of old scrap, such as bedsprings, arriving at Stourhead the National Trust property in Wiltshire for the Scraptors' Sculpture Trail  Beyond the Garden Gate to be in place in the woods there throughout September. The horsebox was painted by Paul for a neighbour. Paul has created murals for clients in Shanghgai and Helsinki as well as nearer places like Bristol and  London.

Scraptor Horse travels from Horseworld near Bristol to Stourhead

                                
Paul, Rachel and Anthony went to Horseworld, the horse sanctuary near Bristol to collect the horse by Paul and Rachel that has been there since 2009. It will feature in the Scraptors Sculpture Trail as Stourhead, the National Trust gardens in Wiltshire throughout September. Above, Rachel holds the Horse in place on the lifting gear at Horseworld.  Below in its horsebox (decorated by Paul in 2009) on its way through Radstock, its arrival outside Stourhead House and its final position in the woods at Stourhead, with 3 Scraptors and NT helpers.

Bacchus and his procession of mutated musicians

Paul and Rachel's Bacchus is now complete and they have added a group of musicains to accompany him .

Here is a scraptor guitar they have made for Bacchus , using a motor from a lawnmower and other scrap materials, it actually plays, although the sound that comes from it is quite a din.

One of the Players, this one is a kind of tadpole /humanoid creature that fits in with the pond enviroment of the trail. The head was donated by Anthony .

Yamaha to Egret

 Anthony is making an egret for one of the lakes at Stourhead in the sculpture trail that will be in the woods throughout September. It occurred to him that the body of that bird  is somewhat like the shape of the petrol tank of a motorbike. So he went to Langford Car Spares near Shaftesbury in Dorset to and found this Yamaha RD350 petrol tank.You will see in the images below the Shaftesbury Monsters that Anthony made in 2005 from bits and pieces from the Car Spares yard. They are inspired by the medieval grotesque carvings from Shaftesbury Abbey which you can see in a museum in the town. The Monsters have become somewhat overgrown so Anthony gave them a trim to bring them back more like their original state as in he bottom image. .

Arch and other work under way

With just 3 more weeks to go until our Sculpture Trail at Stourhead National Trust Estate starts, we are all working hard to get over 70 sculptures completed in time.  A fairly mammoth task which has absorbed us for months - we hope the outcome will be an enriching event for all to enjoy!  


The Stourhead sculpture trail, entitled “Beyond the Garden Gate”, will be installed by the Six Wells lakes and woodland that border the iconic Stourhead Gardens.  The sculptures will explore themes connected with Stourhead - its history, wildlife, classical mythology of sculptures in the garden and buildings that dot the landscape.


The images in this post show work in progress (some completed) by Fiona:

Steel Arch in the making - springs, horseshoes, old urns, tools and posts will form part of this 3-4 metre piece.  The Arch will overhang a pathway on the Trail.  A wire nest will be woven through at the meeting point between the two halves.

One side up

Helpers Jack and Georgia piercing and crushing cans to add to Fiona's giant Spider - previously created by Fiona for Glastonbury Festival '10.  Participants helped complete the work by adding crushed cans and bottle tops around its body of steel.  As the cans have faded in colour, we are updating it with a few new ones for the Stourhead Trail!

Georgia adding cans to Spider's body

Fiona's Owl for the Owl Tree

Chameleon has now been decorated with a full technicolour dreamcoat of bottle tops (completed at the Larmer Tree Festival '11).  Photos taken at Teignmouth Seafront, where Chameleon has been crouching for the Summer, as part of the Devon Recycled Sculpture Trail.  The bottletops may - or may not - remain on for the Stourhead Trail, when Chameleon returns to its resting place on a large mossy fallen tree overlooking one of the Six Wells lakes.  

Work in Progress for Stourhead Gardens Beyond the Garden Gate

Rachel and Paul are busy on sculptures for the Beyond the Garden Gate  sculpture trail at Stourhead Gardens throughout September. Top image shows Bacchus. This relates to a frieze of the Bacchante, worshippers of Bacchus in the Gallery of Stourhead House. In the frieze the Bacchanalian procession of musicians is very jolly but the whole point of The Bacchae by Euripides is that drink can turn the amiable into violent. This Bacchus is  crossing that line. Below, work in progress on a Monster, a Bug and a Giant Heron.