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 The Rogue is really more than good looking! | George Hurst is a woodworker and a life-time resident of Brockville, Ontario. Partnering with Sheila Ballantyne to establish Inspirations Art Gallery the gallery reflects professional quality in representation of their art. Born and raised in the area, George has always been close to the shores of the St. Lawrence River and the 1000 Island waterway. Spending summers on area lakes and rivers, George respects and has a love for nature and the beauty of the land. It is not surprising that at the center of their gallery, “The Cottage Life Collection” is a prominent feature. |  My painting preview with an audience! |
| I have worked with wood for about 40 years and now I feel that new thresholds of woodworking are just beyond, but within my reach. It is with excitement that I look forward to stretching my ideas and skills to create that next unique piece of woodworking art. My woodworking journey through framing, constructing, cabinet making and most lately that of commission furniture making, all have contributed to a skill base that now is opening new windows. Those paths unfolding are bordered only by my imagination plus what I can view as the wood’s attributes. Understanding where the transformation in my thinking process that leads me to creative wood art is elusive, I do think it was a combination of my experience and new exposures. The past has certainly helped me develop skills and techniques. I do have some favourite methods of cutting, sanding, joinery and finishing, all of which have not been replaced. I do find that I rely on my proven and trusted woodworking experience and any new methods are built on that base of confidence. New tools are certainly available to trial and master; some are very helpful while I find the majority just diversions from what I want to create. What I want to create is hard to describe, I don’t want to add any limitations to possibilities by trying to describe an image or style. The past few years have been so very new in experiences, something different comes from almost every project I finish. Finished projects always spawn new ideas, add something here, and change something there all seem to be part of an evolving process. Briefly stated, my new direction will be creative and filled with discovery. I recall the comments of a few friends who have known me through all those early projects. Some of those comments help me today to feel that I certainly have moved to looking at new horizons. Those comments reflect; • My moving away from straight lines and square corners to that of imaginative flowing lines. • Visitors petting my wood and after a few vocal “Wows!” looking closely at the creation and asking “How did you do that?” • My waste wood bin becoming a constant source for “Creatures”, (those pieces framed and hanging on a wall looking back at you) • Finished project names being thought of only after its completion, the names taking on suggestive and sometimes elusive personalized titles • The word “Art” being used to describe more of my pieces, rather than “fine furniture” • My acceptance (a first for me!) in a juried “Art Show” (MVS Gallery St. Lawrence College, Brockville. 2009) Inspiration for new wood-art undoubtedly comes from those pieces that I have recently created and those that are or begin to form in my mind. Those that float (for sometimes months) in my head are usually the result of putting boards through the planer. The journey of an art piece made from wood begins for me with the discovery of the board’s attributes while planing. Seeing the fresh grain explode with character after removing the weathered surface begins to dictate its future. Some boards are high quality show pieces while others are quickly relegated to a supporting role. Those prized boards are the ones I savour, thinking about how they would showcase some of those floating projects in my head or in some cases, clearly have to be a table top or frontal cabinet piece and establish themselves as another project. The back of my chair “The Rogue” and the table top of “Chaps” each hung around in the shop for about two years. I was forever moving them from one location to another but I knew they were going to be a chair back and a table top, just didn’t know how I was going to make the rest of the pieces. “Windswept” was a very similar process. The finished top was bottomless, stashed in the basement for about two years also just waiting for the legs and backsplash to materialize. The remainder of each project eventually began to take shape; ideas forming while running boards through the planer. I don’t say this too loud, but wood does speak! I seldom work from plans, allowing the dimensions to be dictated as each project evolves. I may have some idea of size, but capturing and exhibiting the best of the wood’s attributes is a given. I have experienced many visitors to our gallery who appreciate that and so many of those purchasing are seeking the unique and conversational piece. With Sheila’s urging I have approached something very new to me, using a paintbrush on canvas versus a wall!! This experience has inspired me in another woodworking dimension. I am trying to visualize how I can get my wood-art projects to express feeling. With the completion of “Chaps” I have a new sense of what may be a direction to this end. Creating “Chaps” was work to showcase the spalted maple, looking at the finished product the spalted maple is evident but so is a western image. The top with the leg additions have given rise to the “Wild West” series. Here is a piece that for Sheila and I evokes ruggedness and cowboy images. This piece does exhibit feelings! Our environments are so influencing on what we create. It may be the music that we have playing in the background; it can also be the people around us as we share ideas and notions, it can be what we see around us as “new” in our everyday paths, it can be what we “see” as nature, it can also be what our inner self is saying. I believe an artist can take all these influences and channel them in order to make every project undertaken “special”. The project may be small or large, difficult or easy but creating and putting it together in a manner that injects stretch of either skill or imagination will bring highest personal achievement. That is how I describe where I expect my art to go in the future. I’m anxious to see what it will look like! | ||
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