peter
“I haven’t done art since I left school. I didn’t even know that someone could be a wood carver until I started doing it. I used to work as a tree feller, on and off, for about twenty years. One day I was in a garden centre and I saw a wood-carved mushroom, so I thought I’d give that a go and made a few at home – and an owl too! I liked it so much I started doing it in my free time, and as I got better and better at it, it became a hobby. In the end, I had too many of them laying around, so I thought I’d try to sell some. I packed up the boot of my pickup with owls and mushrooms of all sizes and I went to a supermarket car park. I opened the boot and stood there for the whole day. I probably looked a bit desperate, but I knew this was what I wanted to do. I stopped tree felling to focus on carving, and I started to travel all over England to do little shows and exhibitions, which made it easier to sell my pieces. It’s already been nine years, and to be honest, things still go wrong all the time! I’m still learning, but I love every minute of it. A while ago, I did some big sculptures in the woods and in a village. No one saw me working, so people ended up thinking I was some sort of Banksy type artist, and the carvings hit the papers. That story went viral and I ended up on national television. That’s how Dublin City Council got in touch with me about this job. This is my biggest sculpture to date, and I feel honoured doing it.”
Find more on: http://www.treesculpting.co.uk
“
