Collection of Work by Sculptor David Esterly

If I’m honest I struggled to piece together a set of David Esterly’s creations in the candid style we prefer, I did however manage it with a little digging around so here we are with some wood carvings which are absolutely incredible. I think what we really need to be sharing here is a short film of David crafting these beautiful pieces by hand, as what a talented fellow he is and an obvious master of the art. The artist really has transformed such a raw rigid material into something delicate, refined and above all awe inspiring.

David takes direct influence from traditional carver Grinling Gibbons who graced the earth from 1648-1721, so we are going back a fair way in terms of inspiration. We can however see the connection there with both crafting spectacular cascades of flowers, fruits and other botanical matter to a sublime standard. David was in fact asked to replace a creation of Gibbons in the 1986 fire at the Hampton Court Palace and he has even written a book on the artist so he’s obviously an individual Davids holds with a rather high regard.

It’s great to see there are still levels of craftsmanship like this around, hopefully David has found himself an enthusiastic apprentice so he can pass down all that knowledge and skill he has learned to the next generation. Before we bid you farewell on this page I’d just like to finish on this note, which is in fact a quote from David Esterly himself which I enjoyed very much:

“In a time of radical destruction of the natural world, there’s a poignancy to the beauty of fine foliage carving and the manual skills required to produce it, a kind of reproach that sharpens our awareness of what we are losing” – A very valid point and one that should not be disregarded in the time it takes to close this page, perhaps we should not be looking back to the days where craftsmanship prevailed next to quality, but instead look forward where new ideas and designs will refine the legacy left behind.

www.davidesterly.com

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