Art in the field

James Doran-Webb creates monumental animal sculptures from ancient driftwood.

- Janet Menzies

WHEN Michaelangelo looked at a slab of marble he saw the human form ready to emerge; when James Doran-Webb finds an ancient piece of Philippine hardwood, he imagines dragons, eagles — even a bear fishing. Doran-Webb's enormous found-wood sculptures leap and fly across the world. His Guardian of the Baobabs, a seven-metre-high, five-ton dragon crouched in a tree, took a year to complete for Singapore's Gardens by the Bay. Another, even more massive installation was the 12-metre-high Journey of Giraffes that dominated the landscape from the roof of the Beijing Expo hall in 2019.

Closer to home, the Harleyford Golf Club at Marlow has been invaded by Doran-Webb’s animals, including a red stag, the Tree-Climbing Lions of Lake Manyara and a mythical wyvern. Dragons and their relatives are important to Doran-Webb. At last year’s Chelsea Flower Show he exhibited The Bearer of Infinite Blessings, a stunning dragon rising from the undergrowth carrying a pearl. However, he explains, it's more than that: “If you look carefully, the pearl is actually the Earth; I am suggesting that the Earth is a precious pearl that we are not giving the attention it needs.