Description

Signed verso Ash-wood from Llanfairfechan, Gwynedd, with acrylic paint and gold leaf.

The words are from Trees by Walter de la Mare (1873-1956).

A friend of Wenhams who was building a large canoe was given a very well-seasoned and hard log of Ash. This piece of wood was the scrap which he roughly cut off with a chainsaw so that he could begin the struts and seats for his project. The symbol at the bottom is the Anglo-Saxon Ash rune.

Cutting fairly small letters into a chain-sawn surface calls for the usually smooth sides of the v-cut to be modified, to take account of the ridges and furrows. This in turn gives each letter, an the inscription as a whole, a subtly different texture and a more informal character.

A free copy of Martin Wenham’s new book Martin Wenham The Art of Letter Carving, published by Crowood Press (price £25), will accompany each purchase from the exhibition.