appArt Art & Sculpture Exhibition 2012

This weekend saw the close of the appArt Art and Sculpture Trail at my local garden centre.  I didn't have a lot of time to look around, but it was great to see some local art in such an idyllic setting. I can't deny there were some beautiful paintings – but for me, it was the sculpture that really stole the show. 

Carlos Dare's Fox

There were two stand-out sculptors for me. The first was the self-taught Carlos Dare, whose menagerie of aluminium animals was particularly striking. They somehow managed to be cute and menacing in equal measure, and an example of industrialism meeting nature like I've never seen before. I was surprised to find that a Google search on Dare when I got home brought up one particularly scathing Guardian review, which I can only put down to the most noxious kind of art snobbery. I certainly don't claim to be an expert, but I do know that the crowd around Dare's sculptures the day I visited was unrivaled anywhere else in the exhibition. I also know that if I'd spent too much longer there I may well have ended up with a vulpine addition to my own garden.

Snowy Owl Pair by Daren Greenhow

The other sculptor whose work I know I could happily live with is Daren Greenhow. And I know this because I already do. I currently have an impressive bald eagle made from bicycle parts perched on a border fork in my conservatory. The intention was for him to relocate outside in the summer, but I'm not sure that summer ever really came this year, so no-one's had the heart to put him out yet. He could easily have ended up with a couple of new friends in this pair of gear-sprocket snowy owls. I absolutely love them, and to make something so characterful from something so functional is an art in itself. I can't wait to see what else Greenhow comes up with in the future.