Monchelsea Place - History of a Sculpture

  ....And suddenly, everything grinds to a halt at Quarry Farm! As pretty as everything looks out here its almost impossible to work in these conditions.  

Draw, Cut, Carve, Repeat! This is the third stone which will form the triptych. Out of all the forms it is probably the most peculiar! The 'fragmented vessel' form plays with shapes and curves that suggest teapot handles and spouts. The reoccurring windows that are common within the other two stones suggest the functionality but will also link and frame the immediate environment including the new homes and distant woodland. I can already envisage small children standing  on tip toes and popping their heads through the stone portals and interacting with the sculpture, becoming curious about the colour and fossilised sea creatures embedded in its surface.       

I had initially thought I would work on one stone at a time and complete it before moving on to the next one but I have decided to rough out the other two before standing all three up and working them together. This way I can see how each one might complement the other. The key is to work more with the volume and dimensions of the original blocks rather than removing lots of material to get down to a slender profile as previously imagined. Im currently squaring off the bottoms of the stones as seen in the images and working my way across the top bed of the material which is very uneven and too soft in parts to even be considered to be kept.  This will allow an accurate template / profile to be drawn on one side and then carved across before working on the unseen side!     

 Ancaster Weatherbed Limestone is a beautiful English Limestone quarried in Lincolnshire and blends in well with its natural environment :)