Big Art for Kirkcudbright - Days 4 and 5

According to my Dictionary, a symposium is a conference or meeting to discuss a particular academic or specialist subject. And this sculpture symposium is that and not just a show case for a selection of different sculptors - above we have Nils Hansen, who previously hadn't been seen, and Andy Breen having a natter over a coffee yesterday afternoon down in the Greengate gardens. Nils, who is German and has studied in Italy, works in stone and also experimented with virtual sculpting (I hope that's a reasonable description of his work - there's a quicktime presentation on his website at http://nils-hansen.com/ .Even this computer which runs more in slowtime managed it eventually) - he doesn't have a great deal of experience in wood but Andy let him loose on his own work with a chisel (above). Here's Andy's piece today - you can definitely see the work coming out of the wood.

Back in the middle of the town, the last couple of days have seen a big change in the sculptures. Actually Nils must have surrendered Andy's log back to him because he was back with his piece almost as soon as I got there.

Next to Nils, some shell like curves are emerging from Linda Watson's piece of Sandstone - I've had a wee pop into her website ( http://lindawatsonsculpture.com/ ) and amongst other things, shells feature occasionally - I have no other clues about this other than what we see.

Today the curves are more obvious and much smoother.

Yesterday the hole through Mike Cairncross's sculpture is complete and he was tidying it up - today, I notice he's carved a celtic knot. Find him at http://www.mikecairncross.co.uk/

Looks like a comfortable sculpture too.

Tom Allan (  http://www.tom-allan.co.uk/ )has had a wee model of how he wants his intended sculpture to look sitting out for people to see and the half finished product is shaping up pretty much as the model. Labeled 5 red herrings, it must be referring to the Dorothy L Sayers novel of the same name which is largely based in the town and nearby Gatehouse of Fleet. There are 6 carved herrings, so one must be the murderer.

The forklift in the background was brought in so that the sculpture could be sat on it's base. Unfortunately the boards were not enough to stop the forklift being bogged down in the grass and another forklift had to tow it out. The sculpture had to spend the night outside the covered area but by the time I arrived this afternoon, it was stood up as intended.

Back at the artshop, Peter Dowden has stopped the sandstone head for a while and moved on to a piece of Scandinavian granite which he is finding quite fascinating. Peter is normally a hammer and chisel man but after seeing some of the others at work has borrowed a rotary saw which is helping him find his way into the stone - Peter says the Swedes make their granite like they make Volvos - hard! 

That was yesterday - and this is today.

For any Knockengorroch veterans or Eden Festival folk or even anyone that has wandered back that far in my old blog, Peter was involved in the festival wood carvers.

Mikes piece is comfortable

Plenty activity as I wandered off so I expect to see more changes tomorrow.