The “falcon” Sculpture at Darley commissioned in 2014 is the type of project that does not come along every day!
The commission was to carve a “Falcon” out of a storm damaged Sycamore Tree onsite.
This took 2 months on site for Cork artist James McLaughlin to complete. The Co. Kildare Farm is owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (Prime Minister of Dubai). His Highness has a keen interest in Falconry so the idea of a Falcon carved looking out and “protecting” the estate seemed very appropriate to James. We presented the client with drawings and a clay model of a falcon sculpted by James so they had a strong visual idea of what the piece would look like.
The top part of the storm damaged tree appeared rotten when first looked at by James, so until we had this cut off we did not know whether it would even be possible to carve the tree. Thankfully it was not and as you can see from the grain the tree also had lots of nice spalting going through it. (spalting is a form of wood colouration caused by Fungi
After carving a rough shape with chainsaws, James then set about creating this incredible work of art. The client & all the staff enjoyed this project thoroughly and this final unique piece is truly eye-catching.
