The Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle) in Sintra, Portugal

This national monument lies near to the town of Sintra, west of Lisbon. The heavily wooded area is a National Park and is very beautiful, with the trees growing on and around huge granite boulders. The area around the castle is so special that it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Castelo dos Mouros is a castle begun in the ninth century by the Moors, the Muslim rulers of the area at the time. It was modified by later Christian occupiers after 1147 AD, having passed backwards and forwards between Moors and Christians until then. It was also altered by King Fernando II in the 19th century. There isn't much of the associated buildings left, but the castle is very beautiful even so, with the forest that surrounds it now also filling it's courtyards.

The photos below shows the castle keep, where the Alcaide would live (the castle governor during the Muslim period).

Another national monument, the palace of Pena, sits on the next hill and so both can be visited in a day.   

An adult ticket for both in high season costs 17 euros. However, there isn't much in the way of disabled access. 

You might also need a good head for heights in parts of both the castle and the palace!

When we visited, the castle was in the middle of a large project to restore and improve it, including the building of a visitors centre. Once the large metal mast nearby has gone, it should look good, I think. The holes in the ground next to it are the cisterns, where water stores were kept in case of a siege.

An open-air stone sculpture exhibition in Portugal: Sintra Arte Pública lX

This sculpture exhibition is being staged until the 10th June 2013 at Sintra, a beautiful town to the west of Lisbon in Portugal. The theme of the exhibition is 'Myths and Mythology' (in Portuguese: 'Os Mitos e a Mitologia')

The eighteen carvings all feature stone, mainly marble, combined in some sculptures with metal. Portugal has large quarries of fine marble to the east of Lisbon.

The sculptures are set out alongside the road and had a crafts market going on next to them when I took these photos of thirteen of them. This, combined with the fact that some labels had been removed, means that I can't tell you who created every sculpture. It was a very pleasant surprise to come across them all though!

Nicolau Campos – “Dragão Aprisionado”

José Alves – “Fauno”

Stefano Beccari - "A Sereia"

Elliot Sharrad Jones – “Histórias do Tempo dos Sonhos”

 Élio Oliveira – “ El Rei D. Sebastião”

Beatriz Cunha – “Titã Fragmento”

Diogo Rosa -  “Eva”

Moises Preto Paulo- "Logos. Ansa"

Abílio Febra – “ A Lenda do Guerreiro-Musico”

Linda de Sousa – “Dafne”

Vincent Williams “As Minhas Memórias de Madagascar”

This granite bench was near the  stone sculptures. I'm not sure that it was part of the exhibition, but I like it. The inscription is a quote from Paul Valéry and reads: 'O mar, o mar, sempre recomeçado!' which translates as 'The sea, the sea, always beginning anew!'

Graffiti that made me chuckle at Ashton Gate, Bristol

This made me smile whilst cycling near to the Bristol City ground at Ashton Gate.

Carvings by Tom Astley: 'You'll find them in the branches' at the Parlour in Bristol

Tom Astley is showing carvings in cherry wood at the Parlour on College Green in Bristol at the moment.

Tom is a very experienced modelmaker and has worked on several well-known projects, including the most recent feature-length Aardman animation "Pirates! In an adventure with scientists!' and one of Radiohead's music videos.

He's recently turned his hand to woodcarving and has been carving a cherry wood branch from his garden into these figures. Each figure is about 15cm (6") high. These are three of the six on show:

I like 'em. The exhibition is on until the 7th May

Chelvey designer makers in the North Somerset Arts Trail 2013

I dropped by the Chelvey Woodyard today, where the Chelvey designer makers are based. It is at Brockley, ten miles Southwest of Bristol.

A few people there are opening their workshops to show furniture in the North Somerset Arts Trail this weekend. Tom Carey (that's him above) is showing his beautiful 'Dragonfly table', as well as some of his table models: 

Rohan Scadding has several pieces of furniture on show, such as this wall mounted display shelving unit:

Jim Sharples also has work on display, including the mirrors shown at the top and these chairs cut from old pitch pine timber beams:

There are some very talented folks at Chelvey and if you're out and about for the arts trail, don't miss a chance to go and see what they've been up to.

The Chelvey designer makers have a website at: http://chelveydesignermakers.co.uk/

'Bristol: Ambitious City' at the Architecture Centre on Bristol Waterfront

A self-portrait carved by me is in this exhibition at the moment. The show is about different ways that Bristol might develop as a city and also provides a space for relevant local organisations to show what they do as well.

The Forest of Avon Wood Products Cooperative, of which I'm a member, are showing what we are doing as tenants to maintain and improve the Bower Ashton woodyard.

The FOAWP Coop is a not-for-profit marketing cooperative which has existed for twelve years and promotes using local, sustainably sourced timbers as much as possible. It also seeks to develop networks to help local timber growers and users. You can see more at:
http://www.forestofavonproducts.co.uk/

The woodyard consists of the original estate buildings for Ashton Court, including the old sawmill and granary. Currently there are eight woodworking businesses based in workshops there, all of whom are members of the FOAWP Cooperative. The courtyard is shared with the Bristol Council estates department and the Ashton Court rangers.

The Coop sees the potential to turn these buildings into a creative hub promoting local timber use in everything from large scale play constructions to fine carving. Ideally, it could become a recognised centre that would develop national and international connections in the woodworking, artistic, crafts and architectural worlds. Whether this can happen depends on the cooperative getting a further tenancy lease from the council when the current term is up in three years time.

If you are in Bristol, why not drop by and read more about it? The exhibition ends on the 23rd July and the Cooperative's contribution will be there for the next two weeks.

Woodcarving and working for a living

Whilst looking at the posts that I've put on the blog recently, I've realised how few of them are about carvings that are being worked on!

There's been a lot of work lately that has been more joinery/construction related, but I'm still running occasional carving workshops and making commissioned pieces. I suppose that I see the different strands of what I do as all being part of the same thing. I hope that you enjoy sharing it with me.

The work at Boiling Wells for St Werburghs City farm is something that I'm very lucky to have. As well as a bit of regular money coming in (handy when carving work is sporadic), it also gives the opportunity to work with some really amazing people of all ages and to be outdoors in what is about as close to nature as the British urban environment can get. Even when other work commitments mean that I miss doing some carving, it just makes getting back to the bench even sweeter.

I suppose that the same might be true for others who do jobs that make them wish they could be carving instead. I wouldn't want to speak for everyone (there are some pretty dreadful jobs out there!) but getting back to making feels even better for the time spent away from it.
Do I envy those who carve all the time for a living?      
Hmmm... I'm not sure that I do. It has to be said, first of all, that most professional carvers that I've met do have other work strands to keep them going in the hard times. It's good to be able to leave the bench, meet people and get a bit of sunshine (although British weather can mean that the latter isn't always possible!) Even top carvers frequently do a fair bit of teaching work to keep the money coming in.

It also helps to stop carving from feeling like the daily grind, which is occasionally possible even in a  job that you love. Ian Norbury once wrote:
'Do not envy the slick virtuosity of the trained professional carver - he trained in a hard school that left him with little time for self-expression and he will probably never regain what you have - the urge to transform your vision into wood.'    

Sometimes it's nice to have that space in which to enjoy carving.