After much deliberation, Friends of Pittville have selected local artist Natasha Houseago to carve an original sculpture as part of the new sensory garden project. Natasha was selected because she has long experience of producing robust, compelling abstract wooden carvings in public spaces and, importantly to us, the way she works is fundamentally based in community involvement.
Whenever possible, she works with wood from fallen trees. In this case, she will be using a three-metre plus section of the holm oak that fell in the storms before Christmas last year (see article above).
At the time of writing, Natasha is working on the Green Pledge project for Gloucestershire Archives, carving a ‘pledgehog’ at Nature in Art in Twigworth.
‘I almost always work outside, under the sky in the fresh air, feet on the ground. I’m a direct carver; I work vertically out of a single piece of wood. That means I usually work from March onwards on dry days, and I’m almost always carving in public, interacting with people as I work. I’ve carved some huge pieces – up to four tonnes – on scaffolding, but I far prefer to work at the scale we’ve identified for the sensory garden carving which, after embedding in the ground, should be about two metres tall.’
How will you approach the carving?
‘I live locally, so I’ll come and visit the park and look around on sunny days – just observe, reflect, chat to people – then I’ll do some drawings and make a maquette. The raw wood will be embedded in the ground in its finished position to a depth of a few feet in concrete, and when it’s well set I’ll start working. My first job will be to strip the bark with large hand chisels. That will take most of a day. Then I’ll start marking up some simple lines with chalk before beginning to block out. This means I’ll cut away the parts of the wood I definitely want to get rid of, and for this, I use small battery chain saws. Of course, the area will be roped off so I’ll be working safely. Although I have drawings and a maquette to get me started, I don’t work slavishly to them; you never know what you’re going to encounter within the wood, and you have to let it guide you to some extent.
‘After that I work with hand tools – chisels, gouges and sometimes a small electric grinder. I expect to be working about two days a week over a period of three or four weeks – it rather depends on the weather. And I invite people to come and chat to me while I’m working and ask children to look for small sticks for when we do the pegging. You see, one of the comm-unity features of my public carvings is that I try to incorporate small natural objects that children or others bring by drilling into the sculpture near the end of the process and making pegs from them.
‘I envisage that the finished sculpture will incorporate sensory symbols and imagery as well as providing sensory experiences itself. There might be spy-holes through it, there will be patches of vibrant colour, there will be a range of textures to the surface. I like carvings to be at all physical levels so that access is possible for everyone. I’m also well aware that with carvings in public spaces you can’t leave spiky and sharp edges, but I’ve developed techniques of scorching to make things look spiky while being safe to touch.
‘Of course, the sculpture is just a part of the sensory bed area, and I will be choosing colours in conjunction with an overall design which will, I understand, include new brightly coloured benches.’
Natasha’s recent sculptures include Displaced Child for Everyman Theatre, a giant Sunflower and Bee for Mid-Counties Cooperative, and a Heart Tree in oak that sits outside the front of Leckhampton Primary School. Look out for her at work in the park at some time in the next few months, and don’t hesitate to stop and talk.
Author: Andy Hopkins