Chris Wood, an internationally-renowned competitive chainsaw artist and wood carver from Newport, is helping to create a high profile RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden highlighting the importance of the countryside.
The show garden will mark the centenary of The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), and in what’s thought to be a RHS Chelsea first, Chris is crafting part of the main sculptural land art feature of the exhibit using chainsaws.
He has spent months intricately carving the huge 7m x 3m garden artwork, depicting the head and torso of Mother Nature, at his workshop in Newport and will be adding the finishing touches at the world’s most famous flower show just before it opens on 19 May in London.
A former fabricator welder, Chris competes internationally in chainsaw carving winning plaudits for his artistic talent, as well as creating timber sculptures and public works of art for organisations in the UK and oversees.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England Garden: ‘On the Edge' is being designed by award-winning Sarah Eberle for this May’s RHS event. Sarah is the most decorated British designer at RHS Chelsea and is marking her 50th year in horticulture. She will be leading a team of artisans creating the garden including chainsaw artist Chris Wood, renowned west Wales-based willow sculptor Tom Hare, and Yorkshire stone walling artisans Lydia and Cuthbert Noble.
Chris Wood said:
“I feel incredibly honoured to be part of this project. Generally chainsaw carvers are not seen as being high end artists but actually carving with wood is extremely difficult. To get an opportunity to showcase just how creative and beautiful carving can be at such a prestigious event is wonderful. I’m extremely grateful to Sarah Eberle for this opportunity.”
A big fan of Chris’ expertise, Sarah has commissioned his work on other private landscape projects in the past but this is the first time it will feature on one of her RHS Chelsea show gardens.
Sarah Eberle said:
“It is such an honour to work with Chris on this project. His talent is extraordinary, I am constantly in awe. As designers we need to engage and collaborate with artisans who elevate our work above and beyond our expectations.”
Sponsored by grant-giving charity Project Giving Back, the CPRE garden will highlight the importance of the countryside on our doorsteps, the fragile spaces on the fringes of our towns and cities that connect people to nature in everyday life, yet are undervalued and under constant threat.
The Mother Nature guardian figure will be partly carved from fallen mature trees, with willow-work hair flowing to form the top of a dry-stone wall that snakes through the garden. A winding pathway will lead visitors under the figure’s arched torso through to a central, partially enclosed space, with stone seating and rustic water trough, for community gathering or quiet contemplation. Planting will be rich, diverse and textural, celebrating UK native flowering plants, often dismissed as ‘weeds' but vital to our ecosystems.
CPRE is the ‘sister’ charity of CPRW The Welsh Countryside Charity. After the show (19-23 May), its garden will be relocated to a regenerated housing development in urban Sheffield, giving new life to a community space.
Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back, said:
“We are really proud of the diverse network of gardens that Project Giving Back has enabled over its 5 years of funding gardens for good causes at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and are sure the CPRE Garden will bring joy and health benefits to the residents of Sheffield for many years to come.”
