Tuesday 8 October 2013

Hibernation and activity in Pink Wood

It’s been an interesting few weeks down in a small wood in Somerset! I’ve been working with a select group from the 62 Group on an outdoors project in Pink Wood, near Bruton. It was part of the Somerset Art Works event this autumn and attracted lots of visitors. We contended with the weather as well as ‘comfort’ needs during the day time (although returned to a borrowed house to sleep in comfort!) Penny Burnfield sited her large horse lorry which gave us loo, tea and coffee making facilities as well as being a place to sit in the dry and to store equipment.  Two garden gazebos made a great outdoor covered are for sitting under to rest.

 

Work began in Pink Wood a few days before the SAW event started and we all worked hard, finding places and materials of interest to work with.

I made three pieces. One called ‘Highlights’ was a series of about 30 empty picture frames, painted pink, and suspended at strategic places to show off the many beautiful vistas and interesting details in the wood.

As well as being a place of natural beauty, enjoyed by walkers, riders and picnickers, the wood has an income by selling coppiced trees to a contractor for wood chippings. Piles of cut logs lay to the side of the path that reminded me of rolls of fabric in a shop – another retail outlet. I decided to label some of these logs.

Close to the gate were a few very large tree stumps that formed a bit of a natural barrier around the gateway. The bark on these stumps was separating from the trunk and one had the most interesting edges, holes and grooves . I decided to highlight these by tucking wool fleece along them – in pinks and reds of course.

5 comments:

  1. This looks fascinating. Are there any links to photos and descriptions of what your companions made?

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    1. Yes, Olga. You can see all the work produced at Pink Wood by the 62 Group artists on this blog - www.newsletterpics.blogspot.com. Scroll down to find all nine individual artists. Hope you enjoy viewing. Sian

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  2. Thank you for the link - the work is an interesting idea. Did you feel out of your comfort zones? It would be interesting to know where you each put the work within your overall oeuvre, and how important it was to you as work, or as exploration.
    Did you leave it all in situ, gradually to disintegrate, or did you break it down? I hope the former.

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    1. Sorry to be so long in replying Olga. We requested that the work be left in situ but the woodland manager asked for some to be moved (out of the way of contractors taking down some trees) and some pieces, the artist wanted to take away. About half have been left. The challenging experience of producing work in response to an environment was initially alarming but made us to 'look with new eyes'. I think most responded with their personal voice and maybe extended our vocabulary a bit.

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  3. Looks like you had a great time.I'm glad the frames were useful.

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