Pillars Past

Whilst in Pateley Bridge I wanted to find the sculpture 'Pillars Past', which I'd read about. Deeply set among trees, along what used to be a railway line, it proved a little tricky to 'track down'! (Pateley Bridge is no longer served by rail. The single track branch line, opened in 1862 to carry freight and passengers, finally closed in 1964.) The sculpture is set on what used to be the locomotive turntable. 

The sculpture was designed and carved by local sculptor Joseph Hayton, as part of the ‘Way of the Roses’ public art trail. It consists of three two-metre tall figures emerging from rough sandstone pillars: a shepherd, a lead miner and a monk representing the agricultural, mining and monastic heritage of the area. It was installed in 2014. I liked it very much, although its position under trees means it has become a bit discoloured. 

On a previous trip to Pateley Bridge, I visited the sculptor's studio. Here he is, with models of the figures in the background.  

Fife doors

Fife holiday 2026 #17

I enjoy creating mini projects as well as narrative photos when I'm on holiday. For some reason I'm always drawn to doors - perhaps because they're both familiar and strangely comforting, whilst also being portals to the unknown. There's generally a wide variety to be spotted, some more cared for than others. So here are six Fife doors! 🤣🤣

Top left, in Crail, had a sign saying 'Bellringer Cottage'. signifying what the original owner's role was. Their house looked directly out to sea towards the Isle of May. If a ship was in distress or shipwrecked, they would ring a bell loudly so the whole village would come and help. These small fishing villages were tight knit communities and their lives depended on it.

Top middle, also in Crail, had a date stone of 1632. It's a listed building but I can't find out much more about it. 

Top right, Downie's Terrace in Crail, built in 1878 by a local farmer specifically to accommodate Victorian summer visitors. 

Bottom left, also in Crail, has a carved relief of a sailing boat above the doorway and some fine stained glass in the door. 

Bottom middle, a cottage called The Sporran in Crail. A sporran, of course, is the traditional leather and fur pouch worn in front of a kilt (since a kilt has no pockets). 

Bottom right, an ornate stone doorway somewhere in Anstruther, with a date stone of 1718. 

Lastly, below, a rather lovely wood carving above a door, said to be St Adrian. St Adrian of May, whose legacy is deeply tied to Crail and the East Neuk of Fife, was reputedly killed by invading Vikings in AD 875. His namesake chapel ruins are located on the Isle of May, while coastal caves linked to him sit just outside Crail along the Fife Coastal Path.

Pittenweem

Fife holiday 2026 #5

I had lunch back at our base. Then I, and a friend who also chose not to do the long walk, drove over to Pittenweem, another of the East Neuk of Fife fishing villages. The village has existed since early medieval times, a fishing port that grew around an early Christian religious settlement. Monks had a priory on the Isle of May and relocated from there to Pittenweem in the early 14th century. 

The fishing port is still one of the largest and most active in the area. Unlike the small creel boats at Crail, this harbour has much bigger trawlers, with a daily fish market on the harbour-side where fish is unloaded, sorted, packed and sold.   

The harbour has apparently been extended over the years, notably in the 1770s when Sir John Anstruther needed capacity to ship coal from his mines and salt from his salt pans. There are two or three breakwaters and piers, with harbour lights to guide the boats in. 

I rather liked the collection of old buildings at the eastern end of the harbour, through which you could glimpse the Isle of May across the water. I've read that these were homes for the wealthy sea captains, whereas the other end of the harbour has smaller cottages built by the fishermen. 

Harbours have so many interesting details to capture: brightly coloured floats, tangled ropes and nets. 

Spot those rain clouds (above). There was an absolute cloudburst for about 15 minutes, bouncing rain and hail! Luckily I managed to find shelter but those on the long walk got drenched!

At the western end of the harbour area there is a lovely Fishermen's Memorial, erected in 2019 and sculpted by Alan Herriot. It's a bronze statue of a fisherman's wife and child, staring anxiously out to sea, waiting for her husband's return. Of course, many of them did not return. It's estimated that since the 1800s some 400 lives have been lost in the Firth of Forth off the East Neuk. The memorial's plaque has disappeared but apparently it simply said: 'The memorial is dedicated to the men and women who make their living from the sea and to those who have lost their lives in doing so.'

Extraordinary Portraits 2026

Following the success last year of 'Extraordinary Portraits, with Bill Bailey', the 2026 series is on display in Bradford's Loading Bay gallery space until July. I went along with a friend for an early look. The BBC TV programmes each match artists with 'ordinary people who have done something extraordinary', to create a portrait. Having watched all six episodes on TV and been moved and uplifted by the stories, it was a delight to see the artworks for real. 

The standout painting for me was this one (below) by Jack Dickson. It depicts Seema, who ran a local Post Office and became caught up in the Post Office scandal, a gross miscarriage of justice where many people, over many years, were wrongly charged with false accounting (which turned out in the end to be a faulty computer programme). In Seema's case she was wrongly convicted and sent to prison whilst pregnant. The subtly layered painting has many symbolic references to her life, including a layer of postage stamps at the base. She is depicted standing tall, proud and beautiful, in a huge but quiet statement of strength and resilience. Wonderful. 

I also enjoyed the bold statement made by the portrait of Eddie aka 'Iron Gran', a lady who - at age 72 - was the oldest British woman to compete in an Ironman event and now runs a charity promoting fitness and companionship for older people. Painted by Caroline Pool, it shows strength and Eddie's fun-loving persona but also a moment of reflection. I loved her sparkly manicure!  

Two brothers, Jordan and Cain, painted by Unza Saleem, lost their mother at a young age due to a rare form of dementia and have since found out they both carry the same gene and are likely to develop the disease in their 40s. They are now channelling their energy into raising funds for dementia research. 

Two sisters, Grace and Amy, share an unusual bond. Grace was born without a womb. Amy donated her own womb to her sister, in a pioneering operation, enabling Grace to become pregnant and carry a miracle baby. The sensitive portrait by Karen Turner captures their special relationship of love and sacrifice. 

The artwork I expected to like the most turned out, for me, to be somewhat disappointing. The sculpture, by Nick Elphick, refers to the heroic act in 2019 when Darryn, a civil servant attending a prisoner rehabilitation conference in London, helped to apprehend a man who attacked and killed two people. Darryn grabbed a narwhal tusk off the wall and used it to fend off the terrorist, before grabbing his wrists to try and disarm him. Though his actions were heroic and he was awarded a gallantry medal, the aftermath was difficult and has had a life-changing effect on him. Nevertheless he dedicates his life to rehabilitating former offenders. 

It is in many ways a commanding sculpture, using the Japanese art of kintsugi - accentuating and healing broken pottery with gold - and including the narwhal tusk. The 'gold' appeared simply to be painted on rather than actually holding the cast together. The lump on his shoulder, which I think was intended to signify the burden he still carries, just looked to me a bit odd and the inclusion of the huge tusk, though symbolic, meant he appears to be standing in a box! Not only that but to me it doesn't even really look like Darryn, who is an extremely handsome young man. So, not a complete success in my eyes - but powerful nonetheless. 

The other one I didn't much like was a portrait by Ricky Wilson, of Lindsay who runs a rescue centre for exotic animals in Wales. It does actually carry a sense of her energy and the wild dedication that she brings to her work but I didn't like the random, coloured brushstrokes across her face. 

Alongside the exhibition you could watch a video of clips from the programmes or paint your own picture on acetate by tracing your face in a mirror. Many of those self-portraits were a lot of fun. 

 

'The Nature of Things'

There's a new exhibition in Salts Mill, just for the month of May. 'The Nature of Things' is work by members of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group. The explanatory blurb, too complicated to explain here, made it all sound quite interesting... and indeed it was. The artists are 'responding to this unrenovated part of Salts Mill' and to the materials they chose to use. Interesting... but none of it was, to me, particularly attractive or evoking of any real emotional response. If you're interested to delve further, the catalogue is available to read HERE. 

The pieces above are the work of Sarah Villeneau: 'Salvage' and 'Tenderness Chords'. 'Using the body as a starting point, these works use an assemblage approach to making as a way of exploring materiality and unexpected combinations. The use of found, discarded and repurposed materials with a make do and mend approach is somewhat transgressive and definitely playful.'

Below is Deborah Gardner's 'Invasive Species': 'influenced by the botanical gothic, plant horror and imaginings of future biospheres as a means of expressing anxieties as to our relationship with other species on earth, our climate crisis and a seeming lack of agency.'

Sally Barker's 'Dark Cloud' (above) was more immediately appealing to me, reminding me of a kind of Gothic chandelier: 'a shower of black, individually squeezed [ceramic] fingerprints, like a negative sunburst.'

I didn't know what to make of Christine Halsey's 'Domestic Landscape': 'stacks of clean white china and folded laundry sandwiched between ‘dirty’ or heavy building materials to create a precarious tower loaded with conflicting associations related to gender stereotypes' - but at least here I could discern some meaning. Similarly with her installation called 'Cold Dark Heavy Light', part of which is pictured below. This 're-imagines the West Yorkshire landscape as a vertical cross-section taken through its canals, rivers and moorlands, constructed from the earth, water, pollution and debris found there.' The hanging bottles contained liquid and some on the windowsill held earth. 

Finally 'two painted works are details taken from a map that was created in Saigon, Vietnam where I walked a relatively new neighbourhood of the city, known as District 7, collecting data. The squares containing the black and white cross hatching pattern represent building blocks, while the squares featuring colour represent road intersections.'  This is by Patrick S Ford, using a mobile phone app - and was quite pleasant but seemed a very complicated way to create what is essentially a few patterns. 

Maybe I'm a philistine! I did, however, enjoy the experience of looking round and trying to puzzle them out. It seems, particularly with sculpture these days, that it is more about the artist's relationship with the materials, their ideas and their emotional journey than the finished product per se. I think that's a bit different from painting or photography, but I know from my visits to the world class exhibitions at The Hepworth that some modern sculpture does have the power to move and excite me. 

Perhaps I'll revisit this, when it might be quieter, and see if my opinion shifts. 

Park life

Now the new exhibitions have opened at Cartwright Hall (the Turner Prize having been dismantled), I decided to take advantage of a dry day to have a walk round Lister Park and visit the art gallery. The crocuses on the banking beside the main road have given way to hosts of daffodils and narcissi. 

A circuit of the lake is always pleasant, though there are so many geese that the paths get a bit yucky. The statue of Peter Pan (a copy of the original in Kensington Gardens in London) was a gift to Bradford from the philanthropist Sir Trevor Pears. It's installed safely on a small island in the lake, though that does mean you can't see the detail of all the woodland creatures and faeries on the base. 

The bandstand has been located here since 1908. Its roof became unsafe and was removed in the 1980s, and has since been restored. I think it's still used in the summer. Many of our parks have a summer programme of music. 

The park is a nice mixture of open spaces, lawns and planted areas. At one time there was an outdoor lido too, though that has long gone. I enjoyed my wanderings, though the sunshine didn't last long!  

Shipley sheep

More sheep! 

The Shipley place name derives from two words: the Old English scīp ('sheep') and lēah meaning either 'a forest, wood, glade, clearing' or, later, 'a pasture, meadow'. Fitting therefore that, as part of the recent town centre landscaping, we've acquired a flock, grazing on a patch of grass on Well Croft. 

Before the market place was gutted and reinvented there used to be a 'Shopping Sheep' statue, which some people loved even though I didn't. (See HERE). I guess these are intended to replace that. I like them rather better.  (I don't like all the empty shops we now have. My bank is due to close its Shipley branch soon too. Boo.) 

Axel Salto

Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto: Playing with Fire - at The Hepworth, Wakefield

And so to Axel Salto's work, as curated by Edmund de Waal. Salto (1889-1961) was Danish: 'a radical, polymathic figure who crossed boundaries from one discipline to another, producing an extraordinary body of ceramic work alongside paintings, wood-cuts, drawings, book illustration and textiles.' Most of his work was inspired by organic forms: buds, seeds, sprouts and occasionally creatures. 

You weren't allowed to touch the exhibits, of course, though the surfaces almost begged you to reach out and caress their knobbly forms. 

Apart from the three pronged 'tooth' things (above top left) that just served to remind me of the tooth extraction I've recently endured (!), I enjoyed all the shapes and colours. 

There was more than a hint of what we might now call 'Scandi modern' in his fabrics and designs: complex, lyrical and yet at the same time still spare and clean. (The above photo shows three lengths of fabric and a clay relief panel.) 

I really enjoyed seeing them all. The exhibition is on until 4 May 2026, so local peeps still have chance to visit it. 

Edmund de Waal #2

Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto: Playing with Fire - at The Hepworth, Wakefield

In contrast to the ethereal, light coloured ceramic vessels and sheets I showed yesterday, Edmund de Waal was displaying 'the largest vessels I have ever made. Into their damp surface I inscribed fragments of Rilke's poetry, marking and erasing and rewriting the words, a kind of elegie. They are made with a rough, red clay that turns as black as volcanic stone: that is the alchemy of the kiln'.  

These were monumental, solid, textural... magnificent pieces. I loved them. There was a timelessness about them, a kind of Biblical significance. 

There were a couple of niches too, that contained much smaller pieces but in a similar dark tone. I loved the light on light/dark on dark displays in the exhibition. Magical.