sentinel
A lone sheep stands watch over the Chalk dale of Fothergale near Thixendale. At the bottom of the dale the circular shape is an Earth sculpture called Waves and Time by Chris Drury
Waves and Time was commissioned as part of Wander – Art on the Yorkshire Wolds Way , a programme of artists’ commissions for sites on the Wolds Way. Its aims include increasing enjoyment and awareness of the Wolds Way and the surrounding countryside and encouraging more visitors to the route, locally and from further afield. The artist was selected, and the project managed, by a Steering Group composed mainly of Thixendale residents.
The artwork was featured as part of a BBC TV Countryfile program on Jan 8th 2012, with Matt Baker meeting Chris and walking around the ‘swirl’.
The quoted text on this page come from Chris’s blog entry .
“Following 3 days at the Edinburgh Festival we drove down to Thixendale in the Yorkshire Wolds where I was due to start construction of a work in this stunning chalk valley. The commission was for The Yorkshire Wolds Way and I first saw this valley in November last year. My reaction to the valley was that this was the sculpture and anything added would have to be very subtle. The site was at the confluence of two glacial valleys and I noticed that a curve had been carved out of the far bank where the meeting of two glaciers would have formed a vortex before flowing on down.
My plan was therefore to draw these lines of ancient flow in gentle grassed mounds. In the smaller of the two valleys was a small disused dew pond which I wanted to restore and incorporate.
Work was delayed until late summer as we needed planning permission and a magnetic resonance survey for archeological disturbances. I spent 3 days stringing out the site into a grid of 10 m. squares. Then made the drawing in lime and water lines.
On the Monday Mike Dee arrived – the best digger driver in Yorkshire. He came with machine and his dog Alfie, who proceeded to bark at all passers by and generally get in the way – much to the amusement of us all. Also present were Louise and Dominic, the local archeologists, employed to check out anything we dug up. In the end this amounted to a few fragments of medieval pottery and a sheep’s bone!
So we started in the middle and worked outwards, Mike digging and me raking by hand. Mike was an artist with the digger and made the most beautiful job. His bucket was 40 cm. deep which was as deep as the trench. What came out went on the mound. He started by removing the turf on the ditch, then scooped out the rest. It took about 4 days in all.
The work has now been seeded with a natural grass mix and fenced. It will be green in a month and in 6 months we can take down the fence and let the cattle in.”
THANKS FOR YOUR VISIT AND FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE A COMMENT IT’S MUCH APPRECIATED.
IF YOU WANT TO FOLLOW MY STREAM I SUGGEST YOU OUGHT TO READ MY PROFILE FIRST
sentinel
A lone sheep stands watch over the Chalk dale of Fothergale near Thixendale. At the bottom of the dale the circular shape is an Earth sculpture called Waves and Time by Chris Drury
Waves and Time was commissioned as part of Wander – Art on the Yorkshire Wolds Way , a programme of artists’ commissions for sites on the Wolds Way. Its aims include increasing enjoyment and awareness of the Wolds Way and the surrounding countryside and encouraging more visitors to the route, locally and from further afield. The artist was selected, and the project managed, by a Steering Group composed mainly of Thixendale residents.
The artwork was featured as part of a BBC TV Countryfile program on Jan 8th 2012, with Matt Baker meeting Chris and walking around the ‘swirl’.
The quoted text on this page come from Chris’s blog entry .
“Following 3 days at the Edinburgh Festival we drove down to Thixendale in the Yorkshire Wolds where I was due to start construction of a work in this stunning chalk valley. The commission was for The Yorkshire Wolds Way and I first saw this valley in November last year. My reaction to the valley was that this was the sculpture and anything added would have to be very subtle. The site was at the confluence of two glacial valleys and I noticed that a curve had been carved out of the far bank where the meeting of two glaciers would have formed a vortex before flowing on down.
My plan was therefore to draw these lines of ancient flow in gentle grassed mounds. In the smaller of the two valleys was a small disused dew pond which I wanted to restore and incorporate.
Work was delayed until late summer as we needed planning permission and a magnetic resonance survey for archeological disturbances. I spent 3 days stringing out the site into a grid of 10 m. squares. Then made the drawing in lime and water lines.
On the Monday Mike Dee arrived – the best digger driver in Yorkshire. He came with machine and his dog Alfie, who proceeded to bark at all passers by and generally get in the way – much to the amusement of us all. Also present were Louise and Dominic, the local archeologists, employed to check out anything we dug up. In the end this amounted to a few fragments of medieval pottery and a sheep’s bone!
So we started in the middle and worked outwards, Mike digging and me raking by hand. Mike was an artist with the digger and made the most beautiful job. His bucket was 40 cm. deep which was as deep as the trench. What came out went on the mound. He started by removing the turf on the ditch, then scooped out the rest. It took about 4 days in all.
The work has now been seeded with a natural grass mix and fenced. It will be green in a month and in 6 months we can take down the fence and let the cattle in.”
THANKS FOR YOUR VISIT AND FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE A COMMENT IT’S MUCH APPRECIATED.
IF YOU WANT TO FOLLOW MY STREAM I SUGGEST YOU OUGHT TO READ MY PROFILE FIRST