Coming to the Whitaker in November 2022

Familiar: phase one. Three large sculptures in the garden/park telling:

Three Lancashire Stories in steel:

1. "Dandy", a 2m. high sculpture in stainless steel, patinated black. Inspired by the history of the Pendle Witches, who believed that each had an animal familiar spirit. This supernatural, named creature - which was for one of them indeed a black dog named Dandy, could give them the power they so lacked in their day to day lives.

The spikey steel coat, the dynamic stance, the elongated legs and the unreal scale give power to this creature of the imagination.

The Dun Cow - a large maquette in gloriously rusty mild steel

2. The Dun Cow of Parlick Fell; she gave milk to all who were in need, until someone came who took more…and more …

And 3. the Hare, all 3.5 meters of it in Corten Steel.

These three sculptures will be part of a larger show inside the Whitaker’s Gallery II which will run from 23 February until 7 May showing works on paper, maquettes and small sculptures. This is a solo show developing the subjects represented in steel outside.

Expect to discover the stories that were inspired by local landscapes, find large scale charcoal drawings and works in ink and watercolour created for two books, one of which has just been published and the other which is in progress: the White Dobbie and the Dun Cow.

 Visitors will get a sense of the processes involved in the creation of the artist’s sculptures and her visual storytelling, through sketchbook works and a wide range of drawings and works in clay and paper.

Dandy - a 2 m. steel sculpture inspired by a Pendle Familiar

Several of the poor people from Pendle - accused of witchcraft in 1612 - mentioned the appearance of a dog, who offered to help them when they were wronged. These dog familiars were named and one of them was Dandy. This is the territory I wanted to visit by creating this dog, making it strange, otherworldly and powerfully dynamic.

Originally designed in paper, translated into a computer animated design, cut from stainless steel, bent and welded at the Castle Fine Art Foundry Liverpool workshop (working with director Chris Butler and with expert welder Stephano), the making of this sculpture was made possible through funding from Arts Council England.

The shiny steel has been sandblasted in preparation for patination. It will be exhibited in the gardens of Burghley House throughout this summer before returning to Lancashire where its story began.

Bowland Hare Hop

All 3.6 m of the Corten sculpture have arrived in the beautiful Forest of Bowland which inspired it. It will stay here in this location managed by Forestry England and frequented by walkers and cyclists until the end of February. Chances are that it will meet several of its own kind during its stay as the brown hare really is prolific here in this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The challenge I set myself was to create a complex organic form using just flat sheet steel, and to find a series of outdoor spaces where the place and the sculpture would make more than the sum of its parts. Working on scale has been an important part of this big experiment, as I realised that the piece needed to be bold to resonate in a big open space such as the one it has found itself in.

This halloween Sunday afternoon (31 October) we will celebrate the Story-Lore of the Hare in Lancashire , in an event combining art and storytelling in the woods and around a fire-pit in the Forest. With storyteller Jacqueline Harris. Meet us at the Gisburn Forest Hub Café from 1 pm. BB7 4TS.

White Dobbie Kickstarter Campaign is now live!

Follow this link and find out the dream, the story, and the rewards for backers:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marjanwoudasculpture/the-white-dobbie-an-apparition-from-bardsea.

The project is already well on its way and runs until 1 April 2021

The Apparition of the White Dobbie - a Book in the Making

Evoking a dark wintry world by the sea

Where animals are powerful companions….

Giant Dormouse

First one of two giant little creatures commissioned by Eddie Powell in the studio ready for casting. I love working on this scale; like painting with a big brush!

Exhibition in glorious private garden in Cheshire

Last weekend I had the good fortune to return to this lovely location where I exhibited before, this time in the pigshed as well as the garden.  Here to crown the "4th plinth" is Wilhelmina XIII, a sculpture I made in memory of my dad and his beloved "red" cows.

Wilhelmina XIII, an obviously popular cow's name on our farm

Fearie

Jacqueline Harris (storyteller) and I were awarded a Reasearch and Development Grant by Arts Council England, which allowed us to explore further our collaborative working, together with Theatre Projectionist Adam York Gregory. We develop the multimedia storytelling performance, which we first put together last September for the Lancashire Encounters festival in Preson , exploring new ways to combine the visual and the aural, exploring new Lancashire stories and how to involve audiences.

I have traveled to new places such as Morecambe Bay (see below), and found new ways to tell a story, through drawing, painting and sculpture. My challenge has been not to illustrate the story, but to explore it in a way that immerses the viewer in the imagery in new and different ways.

There are greenies, brownies, and boggarts in Lancashire. All are small, male faeries, often mischievous, able to see what we can not,  or showing us what's in store for us.  I persuaded a good friend with perfect faerie features to sit for me to produce this head.

View fullsize

Male Faerie, Greenie, Brownie, or Boggart

responses to "In Skriker's Footsteps"

Below are just a few audience responses to our storytelling and exhibition event "In Skriker's Footsteps" in Preston last weekend:

•    I really enjoyed seeing different media that what used in the storytelling piece as part of the exhibition. Very inspiring.

•    Original, atmospheric and intriguing. Great to see different types of art used and brought together so one can hear the story, see pictures, try out shadow shows and appreciate the art. Thank you.

•    An original performance enhanced by the media. Catch you in April - thank you.

•    Stories about real places (places I know!) Fascinating. Thanks.

•    Brilliantly evocative. I loved the combination of storytelling and shifting backdrop animation! Thanks.

•    Awesome stories! I really enjoyed it, especially with the background projection! Thanks.

My own response:
Great to be part of a festival - as opposed to just an exhibition - with a varied audience willing to engage in something new, in a very central "pop-up" space.
The combination of the storytelling performance and the exhibition with interactive works worked well. People - having learned the stories - engaged more deeply and meaningfully with the work.

All this made possible thanks to the awesome Jacqueline and Adam!

In Skriker's Footsteps

Part of the Lancashire Encounter Festival in the heart of Preston on 26 and 27 September 2015.

A multimedia live storytelling performance and interactive exhibition.

Jacqueline Harris telling the story of the White Dobbie with a projected image of Hare in my Pocket

In a development from The King of the Cats Touring Exhibition, Jackie and I collaborated with theatre projectionist Adam York Gregory, to break new grounds combining story, images, inter active sculpture, animation, drawing and sound.

the Dobbie's Hare II

The second new clay sculpture is the familiar of "the White Dobbie", a spectral, ghost-like, weary pilgrim, haunting the coastal road from Rampside to Bardsea in the very nort west corner of Lancashire. Hence the sceletal features and the upright pose....

I used a grey clay which will fire white - while I consider casting it.

New story-inspired sculptures

I took two of the ideas from "the King of the Cats" lancashire story project, to develop on a larger scale. Here is a strange cat;  part messenger, part royal feline, (tail draped over paw), part spectral cat, created in clay to be fired as a terra cotta sculpture - though bronze would be better.

On Beauty

I have revisited an earlier subject, exploring an idea that really needs to be developed on a larger-than-life scale. I am excited about the contrasting forms, and about the dramatic space between the two elements. This maquette in wax is on its way to the foundry for casting in bronze.

View fullsize

Boy

I was asked by one of my two sons to make his head in clay. This is the result. Not a great likeness, but as I told him: no one has inspired this head but him. Seduced by the beautiful forms of mouth/lips and deepset eyes emerging under my fingers I find myself unwilling to take it further. The pan-like cheek radiating from this face are to me utterly typically of this boy (who is a man, really, only: forever boy in the eyes of his mother).