On a Swing

Today’s post might properly be subtitled: ‘On a Swing – The Bizarre and the Beautiful’.

First, the Bizarre. Visiting Charlecote Park recently (a National Trust property) my wife spotted ‘something’ dangling in the air.

Closer inspection revealed it was a sculpted beastie of some sort with a pointed snout, large flappy ears and a long tail, sitting on a seat tethered apparently in the middle of a swing. Just suspended there. Quite crudely cast but if it could talk one could imagine it swinging through the air shouting ‘Yippee!’

For the Beautiful, we go back to the Woburn ArtBeat outdoor sculpture exhibition and specifically the superb work of Jonathan Wylder. I posted an image of a simply gorgeous sculpture by him entitled ‘Anna’ earlier this year in ‘Woburn Outdoor Sculptures’. Or click here to see the image alone. Elsewhere in the gardens, on a re-visit, I found another of Jonathan’s sculptures – instantly recognizable as one of his, entitled ‘Jasmine on a Swing’.

I struggled to get an image of this that really did the sculpture justice. It was not very well placed with photography in mind and there were really only two ways to shoot it and both involved some fairly major cloning to remove some distracting background detail. Hopefully you can’t see the retouching.

I like both of these ‘takes’ equally although I wish there had been one that gave that feel of flying with both a good perspective and a non-obtrusive background. Do let me know your thoughts on these.