My Work
People
Figures and portraits have been part of life.
Thoughts, Paris. 2012.
The Countryside
I have lived much of my life far away from towns and cities, far from throngs of people, where walking routes were not paved but mud, grass, heather, and marsh. Meadows and car hedged fields rolling or stark hills or wide sky filled fen country; all make up my joy.
Woodland. 2009.
Tree. 2012.
Urbannia
There is no such place but living in cities and towns has compensations and answer many of my needs. The slight edginess of urban living: the living aspect can test you, raise awareness, you are surviving in an ever changing and developing environment. Do not tread on the gaps between paving stones or fear crossing the road, avoiding pedestrian underpasses, never quite knowing what is next.
Wet Winter Evening, Newark. 2012.
Home
Where I am with those I care for. Where I think, breath and am allowed to be the person I am.
Mining
I have been fortunate in being involved in the mining industry at the end of its life as a major industry in Britain: through the centuries is incalculable. It fed power to the Industrial Revolution, it warmed Romans on Hadrian’s Wall, powered ships around the globe and allowed ‘modern life’ and luxury. Coal has gone, except a few weekend mines in places like the Forest of Dean.
Visions of such places still hold a strong memory in one’s subconscious. The walkway from the lamp room to the Down shaft paved with empty snuff tins, the knot in one’s stomach as you drop into the void at 40 metres a second and the darkness cut by lams. Colours shone out of the all-enveloping blackness.
Last Production Shift, Annesley. 1999.
Heading Out, Annesley. 1999
Water
Water is a major part of my life.
Flood water was a feature of my life in 1995 and 2000 when I had to row up he lane against the flow of the River Trent as it pushed the boat towards the hedge tops where mice and small birds nestled in the top twigs. An electric outboard was not strong enough, so oars were the answer mainly one oar from the stern half punting where shallow enough and oaring when deep.
Heading Up to the Village, Collingham Flood, Nottinghamshire. 2001.
Flood with Snow, Collingham 2000.
Memories: People and Time.
These paintings are shadows of memories, sketches of flash backs to individuals and places, mental states, and issues. They are usually obliterated from our consciousness by newer events and worries. They are though still there in the recesses of one’s subconscious. They appear at the least likely or appropriate moments and startle you or make you laugh, usually uncomfortably. They are a comfort or a spur. They goad and tantalise you. You never rid yourself of them, no escaping.
Memories, People Passing. 2021.
Ceramics, Pottery and Ceramic Sculpture.
A wonderful area of art which has been often denigrated by painters and sculptors but never loses it immediacy or thrill. To make a form is to create an object always abstract but at times with function. A vase, make a lip and stick a handle on it and it is a jug. Or you might invert a vessel or break it and change it to another aesthetic realm. I still make clay objects, functional or not, clay requires a different set of thoughts, forming by hand or mould requires certainty, the surface requires science, an ability to see beyond the ball kneaded and prepared for use.
The need to abandon the work to the actions of the kiln the transformative actions of heat. The transition from transitory clay to permanence, the actions of dull powders washed over the surface of clay becomes glaze, colours transforming visual appeal or changing perceptions.
Landform. 1974.
Sculptures and Constructions
At foundation college we had a model for two weeks to do our worst with. The figure that transpired was modelled in clay and then a mould made and then cast into a plaster positive, a long and fraught experience. We all experienced the frustrations of proportion and understanding the body in the round. Such an exercise helped to develop our life drawing as well as our work in the third dimension.
It further increased our understanding of mould making the, though new materials have made things easier and less fraught today.
Three Limestone carvings, weathered. 2009.
Figure 2020
This figure is tall (120cm) and made from recycled timber. Wood dye, varnish, acrylic.
Birdbox Terrace 2020. Recycled wood, varnish, acrylic.
Multi Story Birdbox. 2020. Recycled wood, varnish, acrylic.
Upstairs Downstairs Birdbox 2020. Recycled timber, varnish, acrylic.
One-off commissions are welcomed.
Clean Rivers Trust.
This organisation I helped to found in 1990, it was a temporary assignment that has taken over much of my life: work on cleaning up rivers was a dream then and as many will say it has not been achieved in that time I have spent doing it. The rivers of Yorkshire and Lancashire, the Northeast, and the midlands the Central Belt of Scotland, West and South Wales were failing, fish were absent. Today there are fish, and their corpses bear testament to further pollution. Much has been achieved and the Trust continues to research methodologies to eliminate more pollution problems. We do not shout at people but work with them, finding answers. One cannot say something must be done, one must say what might be done? Find out how and carry it out.
See the web site: www.cleanriverstrust.co.uk
Harvey Wood.
Born a long time ago (1954) in London,
Not academically inclined and wanted to make or create things, design or in other ways develop visual stimuli.
Only later the academic values of science and engineering developed.
Some Exhibitions.
One Person:
1975 Fairfield Hall, Croydon.
1975 South Pickenham Hall, Norfolk.
1976 ‘Ceramallage’; Henderson Gallery, Thistle Street, Edinburgh.
1977 St Andrews Hall, Norwich.
1979 Cork Arts Gallery, Eire.
1981 Chepstow Gallery, Gwent.
1983 Chepstow Gallery, Gwent.
1983 Silver Place Gallery, London.
184 Crest Gallery, Cardiff.
1985 Silver Place Gallery. London.
1992 Newark Folk Museum, Nottinghamshire.
1994 Space Gallery, London.
1996 Newark Folk Museum, Nottinghamshire.
1997 Silver Place Gallery, London.
2003 Chepstow Gallery, Gwent.
Group Shows:
1976 Society of Designer Craftsmen Licentiate Show, London.
1977 Fermoy Gallery, Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
1978 Henderson Gallery, Edinburgh.
1978 East Anglian Crafts, Norwich.
1979 Art from Cork, Boston, USA.
1981 Painters in Wales, Cardiff Castle, Wales.
1982 Bristol Arts, Bristol.
1988 South Pickenham Hall, Norfolk.
1992 Pictures of Notts, Nottingham.
Published books:
2002. Minewater Treatment, Technology, Application and Policy.
2012.Disasters and Minewater; Good Practice and Prevention.
Papers and articles published in journals and magazines.
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