Exploring New Avenues

The warmer weather always brings a change in the rhythm of life and work and, although this spring has not exactly been glorious weather-wise, the outdoors has certainly been calling. So rather than working in my studio - which is simply a slightly glorified - but glorious - garden shed and which starts to feel a little too hot and closed-in when the sun is shining and birds are singing - the outdoors beckons. And this year I have undertaken to do some things in the woodland, mainly, but also in the garden, seeking to tune in to the surroundings and creating things that intimately respond to the immediate environment.
This requires a very different approach from what I do in my studio when working on my form-finding pieces for instances. The pace of things outside is slower, the atmosphere more serene, calmer, less intense. I seek to open myself up to everything that surrounds me, tune in and invite a way to respond to what I see and feel.
So many ways to interact with this wonder-full environment. 
And here are a couple of images of my beginnings. These are clay imprints of the bark of a glorious redwood in the woodland. I now need to play around with ways to place/display these (images of which with follow in a subsequent post).
This is my way of drawing attention to these magnificent trees that make the woodland such a magical place; my way of paying homage to and exalting nature. 
Many artists prefer to do this with close, figurative representations of what they see. I am seeking to find a different way; my own personal way, one that fits with who I am as a sculptor. 

Redwood bark:

And
Magnolia leaf and fired white clay 'scraping'

Which leads me to the other 'new avenue' I have been exploring.

I am calling these 'Scrapings', an explanation of which will follow in the next post.