Friday 31 July 2009

Willow Sculpture and the Retreat


Near the head of Glen Esk at Tarfside is The Retreat . It houses the Glenesk Folk Museum, a gift shop, a restaurant/tea room, a communtity room and an exhibition area. They've spent a few bob over the last wee while, around £800,000 I believe. The community purchased the buildings in 2004.

The Retreat was the brainchild of Greta Michie and was originally set up in 1955. A local school teacher, Greta was inspired by visiting Scandanavian Folk Museums, principally in Norway. The idea was to give employment to local women and children in the glen through the sale of local produce and crafts. Back in the good ol' days, it was still possible to sell stuff like local honey, jam, butter, eggs and home baking. Unfortunately, those who claim to KNOW BETTER have consigned these delights to the past. Health and F****** Saftety and all that.
That aside, as I was driving down the glen, I was struck by the fine willow sculpture of a stag
outside the Retreat. A little bit of Googling and I discovered that the sculptor was Trevor Leat and that he created this last summer for the Retreat. He also does work for the Wickerman Festival and the Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations. Lots of his stuff gets burnt. Not by outraged punters I hasten to add, but on purpose. You can see some burnings on the link below. There's also some interesting stuff about him and his collaborator at http://www.leatrigg.com/.




For anyone interested, http://www.angusglens.co.uk/ is a useful guide and has some good links.
For more Skywatch Friday posts click here















14 comments:

  1. Before scrolling down, I hadn't realised how big this would be. It's clever and beautiful and I'd be sad to see it burnt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like this work and how nice it seems. I have heard about willow wood used for other similar sculptures and in time some of the lower willow branches touching the ground sprouted and started to grow. I don't remember them doing anything about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great photos, that sculpture is incredible.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marvelous post, Neil! Love all the information and that sculpture is beautiful! I'd hate to see it burned, too! Great photos, as always!

    Have a great weekend!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  5. At first I was almost devastated thinking of the sacrilege of burning something so beautiful, on second thought though, I can well understand that like the journey of life, it is the journey that matters, not arriving in your coffin. The beauty and challenge is in the making not in the watching of the slow decay thereafter. Fire is so cleansing.
    A very enjoyable post, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And a stag it is.... beautiful art. Thanks for sharing. Greetings from the Netherlands.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Don't be fooled people.

    "Near the head of Glen Esk at Tarfside" is very north...

    "The Retreat" that offers employment to local women and children (aka 'elves')... is a workshop that makes gifts...

    And that is not a stag, that's Rudolph...

    Neil, do you have red jammies?

    ReplyDelete
  8. A great post, I love the stag and thanks for the information about it's creator. I would love to go to a Wicker man ceremony

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lol.... yes, but it's our little secret Toaster.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh... I thought that photo of you wearing lacy women's knickers was our little secret.

    ReplyDelete
  11. erm... that's two little secrets now!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Now you're talking bollocks, Neil.

    :-P

    ReplyDelete
  13. ..... They're not THAT little!....:-(

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh dear... between this and CBT, I've not been very nice, have I?

    ReplyDelete