This is the 'Ram's Head' I carved in a day for the Otley Show in May 2011, this is the oldest agricultural show in the calender.
.....undercutting and pattern-making to add a decorative element to the sculpture.
This was the first year a chainsaw demonstration took place here and I believe people have asked for it to be a regular feature at the show...I already have a design ready for 2012 !
Above is an early work I carved in a 4x2feet long piece of slate back in my Birmingham College of Art days....it was named 'Brothers' and depicts the struggles of sibling rivalry.My influences around this time were J.Epstein, H.Moore and H.Gaudier-Bzreska.
...and here is a view of the site looking across to Otley Chevin.
'Knowledge' plaster 2x2x5ins. I carved this when I was back home in Leeds for the summer after my first year at Art College...poured some plaster in a milk carton, put on the music, sat in the sun and got my penknife....this was later carved in wood on Otley Chevin in the late 1990s but was stolen after a month !
'Guitar' 5feet tall...Otley Chevin.
A clay maquette for 'Fossil' 2009......I work out my designs in soft clay then hand carve small models in plaster before I switch on the chainsaw.
When my family and I were in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. for a year in 2007 I was an invited sculptor to the International Ridgeway Rendezvous Chainsaw Carving Competition. Living and working in Manheim I decided to carve something other than a bear or an eagle so I carved this tractor...I had intended it to have been in one large 5x5x5feet piece but I was limited by the wood available. Nearly 250 chainsaw carvers were there during the weekend mainly from the states but also from Germany, Japan and myself representing Great Britain so it was a proud moment for me and my family.
This is the house I was brought up.in Leeds and I carved a Yorkshire Rose in limestone as a memento of my happy childhood there.
...both my mum and dad had their own rose gardens to the left and right of where the sculpture is now sited.
'Still Life' 6x4x4feet aerated concrete . Royal Society of British Architects, London (Tarmac Topblock Sculpture Exhibition, First prize winner 1985)
'Infinity Loop' Chevin Forest Park, Yorkshire 1997/2009
'Cradle' Chevin Forest Park, Yorkshire Pine (6feet tall)
'A Yorkshire Tale' Oak 5x4x4feet 2008.
These were made in Wroclaw when I was an invited sculptor from the UK to take part in the International Polish Sculpture Symposium...they act as working drawings in space before and during the carving of 'Acrobats'.
'Acrobats' Elm 7feet tall.....carved in three days and sited in Poland.
'Adoption' Limestone 3x3x4feet. I did this when I was an Artist In Residence at Pudsey Crawshaw High School back in the mid 90s. 
'Personal Uprising' 7feet tall Ash. I made this just after I had graduated from Birmingham College of Art in 1986.....the large branch limbs reaching up to the skies in hope and anticipation.
'Still Life With Chain' Limestone 3x2.5x2.5feet 1986.
This is the early stages of the Deer Family having just been 'blocked out' with the chainsaw. Aug.2009
Mountain Bike, Victorian Hiking, Knotties Stone, and Chippendale Chair......in progress down on the Chevin August 2009.
This is not only a homage to Thomas Chippendale the great cabinet maker from Otley but also I wanted it to be a magic chair for members of the public...when I run past it now it reminds me of an old Grandfather Chair we had in my family I remember as a child when growing up in Hunslet, south Leeds.
'The Knotties Stone'. I enjoyed the freedom I had when making this sculpture, as did I suppose the artists from many generations ago did when they carved their symbolic patterns in tough Yorkshire stone. The original Knotties Stone can be found higher up on West Chevin, and the animal in my sculpture has reference to both a Yorkshire ram and some of the exotic animals that were bred on the Chevin many years ago.
This side view of the first sculpture on the trail shows the climber and the bent mountain bike wheel....a reference to daredevil in us all.
