I had never walked a sculpture trail.In fact it sounded pretty boring to me.HOW WRONG COULD I BE!
Sorry about that lens flare-ouch!This head opens and inside is a full sized bed! Talk about getting inside someone's head
It turned out to be a fascinating two hours as my friend and I explored amazing art in a beautiful outdoor setting.Brick Bay vineyard and sculpture trail lies an hour north of Auckland.Surrounded by native bush,vineyards and rolling countryside the restaurant,wine tasting courtyard and sculpture trail offer a great day out-probably do the sculpture trail before the wine tasting!
Sculpture outdoors uses different materials as the works are outside 24/7 all year round.This trail exhibits the best sculptors in N.Z. and enables the public and potential buyers the chance to see them in settings the artists meant them to be seen in.They were mostly all for sale-at a price.
The setting was amazing ,the art fantastic,and sitting in the bush looking at and touching sculptures gave me my first real appreciation of this art form and the skill necessary to create such works.
Let's go...
The idyllic setting of the sculpture trail and restaurant.Brick Bay.
A 5 metre high Structure made entirely of identical small square wooden blocks-like Lego on steroids.
A stainless steel sculpture -If you look closely the artist left an asymetrical space in the middle where the scenery in the background is exposed
A piece inspired by Easter Island statues carved from wood and roughly 4 metres tall.
You are surrounded by beautiful native trees and bush-living sculptures.
Some of the works are made to deliberately blend in with the surroundings-like this giant green plastic/wire piece
Some are made to rust in the elements
This installation of hanging pieces is almost impossible to see at first as they are almost exactly the same shape and size of the giant trees that surround them.-incredibly beautiful .
Some of the works leave you to interpret them yourself and admire the use of materials-like this bronze work
And this marble one-such a difficult material to master.This work is actually 6 pieces suspended delicately.
This is the interior of a large structure built entirely of long pieces of identical wooden pieces.The light inside was beautiful.
An old "long drop" bush toilet given a Maori art makeover and left to weather-since 2007.
Three sculptures of dinosaurs from bronze,stainless steel and steel-they sit in a children's playground so kids can learn about dinosaurs at a size they can grasp and play with.
A missile for the adults-looking less than dangerous.
Some of the hundreds of lily pads in the giant lily pond surrounding the restaurant
A stainless steel seal
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And finally a beautiful 2 metre long corrugated aluminium leaf screen printed and laser cut to appear as if it is rotting-a perfect imitation of the real leaves that surround it on the forest floor
Well I hope you enjoyed this sculpture trail as much as we did!