about me...Alan Lees spent his early career at sea, working as a company yacht skipper where he gained valuable shipwrighting skills which gave him a whole new perspective on wood. His interest in sculptural forms of art, combined with his nautical experience lead him to a full time career as a sculptor, largely in wood, based in the picturesque Ayrshire village of Kirkmichael.There, he began to explore sea themes, carving stylised boats in lovely hardwoods and also tackling a variety of wildlife carvings. Later he began to carve both rocking and free-standing horses to commission. Over the years his horses became more sculptural as he found the challenge of tackling such a large and complex animal increasingly informative. Now he only occasionally undertakes a special commission for a waxed or varnished horse, but he has explored many other forms of wood-carving, large and small. He is now recognised as one of Scotland’s foremost wood sculptors. His many works have included outdoor and indoor carvings as diverse as a very fine Christ on the Cross in native beech, a Buddha and Green Man for Kelburn Country Park, a large anchor standing outside the village hall at Plockton, a dragon figurehead for Vikingar in Largs and a walk-in wooden sundial for Kirkmichael Primary School, designed for the BBC’s Beechgrove Garden programme. One of his best known works was a commission for the Tam O
Shanter Experience in Alloway:- “Tam and Meg” - a life size
carving in limewood. During 1999 he also undertook a major carving project
in Newton Stewart, interpreting the poetry of Dumfries and Galloway’s
Writer in Residence Liz Niven, as well as completing a spectacular millennium
carving for Kelburn Country Park: the Time Man, created from a fallen
oak tree, still rooted in the ground.
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