Cutting

Sculptor Ella Fielding has an unusual way with wood as Jane McGowan discovers

Ella Fielding has carved quite a name for herself. Across the country her thoughtful artworks dot the landscape, lovingly handcrafted symbols of how to see the wood through the trees.

Chessington World of Adventures is a satisfied customer. So too are the Royal British Legion and the Woodland Trust. But it’s the implement involved in creation that sets Ella’s work apart. For her tool of choice is not a chisel, but a chainsaw that she wields with precision across a wide variety of trees.

“First and foremost I am a sculptor. It’s just that my primary craft is wood carving with a chainsaw,” she explains. A form of artistic expression upon which Ella stumbled by chance. Tasked with finding work experience during her final year at Camberwell Art School, she recalled a sculpture by a group called The Tree Pirates that she had admired on a visit to Glastonbury Festival with her family years before. The image had stayed with her ever since. Time, she decided, to try to make contact with the artists.

“Their workmanship and carving had really resonated with me, so I hunted them down and asked if I could hang out with them. I thought that I would just be able to watch them at work, but they encouraged me to have a go. I did, and I loved it at once. It’s so much fun.

“I used the technique to create the final pieces for my degree. So while everyone else was scrabbling around for studio space and getting stressed, I was out in the car park with my chainsaw. People on buses looked very confused as they went past.”

And while not everyone would associate fine art with power tools, Ella was instantly struck at just how sensitive and creative the chainsaw enabled her to be.

“Because you are making something so quickly, there is a direct conversation between your thought and your action. Using such a tool works well with my brain. I have found in the past that there are too many processes involved in the creation of art – you may have to sketch first, then paint, or fire, dry and frame.

But this form essentially involves two items. It is immediate and responsive. You can start your working day with a block of wood and a chainsaw and end it with a finished sculpture.”

For Ella, the craft has opened many wooden doors. Though she is now based in Surrey, her distinctive skills have taken her to all parts of the country, placing within her hands the power to evoke a thousand memories and moods.

Many of Ella’s commissions come via tree surgeons whose customers, hearing that an ancient or muchloved tree must come down, desire to create something precious from whatever is left or from an individual piece that can be saved.

“A tree brings such emotional attachment. It has grown in your space and been part of your life. Perhaps your children used to play in it, or it was part of the family garden that you associate with happy times. It’s not just about what is created: it’s also about what it is created from and why.

“I have a lot of people cry as the tree is taken away, but carving something from it gives that tree its next life journey, rather than just condemning it to the fire.”

A sense of connection is also key to Kings of the Wood, the Discovery Channel show in which Ella and other woodworkers create bespoke items for members of the public. Visitors to the New Forest workshop commission a gift for a friend, neighbour or relative whom they regard as a deserving recipient. A new series is scheduled for broadcast in the spring.

The show has the same warm vibe as The Repair Shop, as the artists labour to create a present that will resonate with giver and receiver alike.

“We all make the creation journey together,” says Ella. “That’s emotional for everyone involved, but it brings so much to the end piece.”

And whatever the story that lies behind a particular commission – whether televised or not – Ella’s work is nothing if not joyful. Some of her most celebrated Surrey sculptures are on view in Banstead Woods, where you will find a whole host of Narnia themed creations to surprise and delight.

“I was working on something else with a lovely lady called Helen West, Greenspaces Officer at Reigate & Banstead Council (in Surrey). Suddenly she said: ‘You know, I would love to have a wardrobe in the woods.’ I told her that I could do it, and we started to discuss other sculptures that could go with it, based on the CS Lewis stories.

“Soon I had funding for Lucy, Aslan and the White Witch. It was wonderful to bring another fun aspect to what was already a magical outdoor space.”

For private commissions, Ella takes great pains to create something that will suit the client’s life and surroundings. “I often ask them to send me pictures of their home or garden, or the place where the sculpture is going to sit. If I can see how the land lies, it enables me to make something that is just right, but which the client may not know that they want. It is always bespoke and personal, but not in an overt way. I just try to create something that they can recognise and appreciate.”

Once created, the sculpture receives several coatings of wood protector to ensure long life.

“Basically, it’s like putting on sun cream,” laughs Ella. “The works need guarding from the elements, and I want them to look as good as they can for as long as they can.”

For Ella herself, working outside surrounded by nature – whatever the weather – is another huge perk of the job.

“I go wherever the tree takes me: woodland, people’s gardens, a tree surgeon’s yard. Often the wood is so big that it’s easier for me to go to the wood than for the wood to come to me.

“It’s an amazing way to work and very mindful – given the noise of the machine, I actually find it quite tranquil. I like to have music on, or Radio 4, which enables me to get in the zone.

“People think it’s quite a forceful, brutal job, but it isn’t. I think it is basically like using a chisel: you can either hit with all your might or you can chip away delicately with smaller blades. The chainsaw works in just the same way.”

Hardly surprising, therefore, that Ella has no plans to swap her saw for a gentler instrument any time soon. “No way! I loved this from the moment I started. It’s like I don’t have a proper job; I’ve never had to be a grown-up. I have accidentally stumbled across a method of working that I adore and which other people appreciate too. I will be eternally grateful for that.”

• Watch Ella in Kings of the Wood, on the Discovery Channel, later this year; ellafielding.com