We sat down with Walter Bailey, the artist we are collaborating with this growing season on a series of projects: from a new permanent sculpture for the vineyard to wine labels. We discussed his process of making the new sculpture, his work on the Artefact #6 labels and his upcoming solo show at Artelium, Wood, Earth.  

Walter Bailey works with oak and redwood, creating bold sculptures with intricate patterns using hand tools, chainsaws and fire. He reuses fallen wood taken from the landscape, returning it in a reimagined form. Walter’s work is held in several significant public and private collections, including Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Surrey AONB, Park House Oxford Street, and Amnesty International HQ.  

Alongside large-scale sculptures, interior pieces and a selection of woodblock prints Walter’s upcoming exhibition Wood, Earth, features a new permanent addition to the Artelium sculpture garden. Using oak from pruned and storm-felled branches, Walter has created a bespoke piece in response to the vineyard. This large circular structure provides an organic frame for the surrounding vines and views of the South Downs.   

What made you excited to work with Artelium on a site-specific sculpture?  

“It’s a landscape I know and love. In the ‘80s I moved to Brighton and rented a place just along from Streat Lane. The incredibly iconic view of the vast, undulating South Downs was the start of my love affair with this landscape.  

“I have this place in my bones, as it’s where I started carving with wood. I was working as a tree surgeon and planter part-time which generated a lot of spare wood. I was already a carver but that’s when I thought ‘I’ll try working with wood for a whole year,’ which developed into a life-long commitment to the material. I started carving the landscape I was working in, the sweeping South Downs teaming with wildlife.  

“This is partly why working with the landscape around Artelium was so attractive. I am also intrigued by the drama of growing the grape: the collaboration between soil, environment and elements. Visually, I enjoy the juxtaposition between the curvature of the landscape and the latticework of the vines, The sculpture I have made for Artelium celebrates the softness and fluidity and life of this landscape. The circular form will naturally frame the conversation between the linear vines and undulating downs.”

You have used sections of pruned or storm-felled oak from the Artelium estate to make this sculpture, do you look for specific qualities in the wood you work with?  

“Every tree has a rich biography. The landscape, climate and soil are all being voiced in what the tree has become, so there is always a sense of discovery coupled with a sense of risk. You don’t know if a tree has got foreign objects like nails buried in it or rot in its heart until you start to split and carve.  

“I always work with local wood, mostly redwood and oak; both have different qualities that I enjoy. Redwood grows quickly, is very light and has a very bold, characterful grain. Oak, on the other hand, is strong and enduring. For someone like me who isn’t keen on putting treatments on wood, it’s very resistant to disease, as long as it doesn’t have direct contact with the ground.  

“I like the idea that wood is finite. It will return to the ground eventually, nourishing the soil. I feel like it’s the material going home.”

You have always worked with natural materials, what drew you to work in this way?  

“Very early on, I had a sense of belonging to a living world. I spent a lot of time as a child looking for wildness in post-industrial Sunderland, whether that be in local parks or exploring the coastline. I had a traumatic upbringing for a number of reasons and a sense of geology and deep time, understanding our briefness and smallness, was consoling. I was interested in our interconnectedness too; how creation is live, everything pouring into something else, returning to dust, to earth. Everywhere, all the time, things are dying and becoming. I like going with this regenerative rhythm, working with the landscape, not against it.”

Can you take us through your process of creating a large sculpture?  

“My practice is bound to drawing, I discover quite a lot of my work by just exploring with pen or pencil and paper. I draw when I am inspired to, by a landscape or through reading about a subject that interests me, for instance the xylem vessels which transfer water from root to leaf in plants, or Celtic knotwork. These drawings will begin as idea gathering but might develop into a fully-fledged design for a sculpture. Once I have the concept, I find and harvest the wood.  

“I split the larger logs into smaller pieces, just like you would split firewood. Often the wood will break where it wants to, as there are natural rivulets. This process is all about working with rather than against the material; it is a collaborative act. I’ll roughly carve the shape of each section with a chainsaw, one section at a time before fixing them together with pins in the desired way, weather in a stacked or circular formation. The markings on each piece might be informed by the original drawings but I also need to have a natural conversation with the material, as natural materials have quite a strong voice. I use chainsaws and hand tools to make deep cuts, openings and lattice patterns. I will often charr the wood afterwards with fire, lending it a wonderful deep colour whilst also hardening the material.”

You have recently started experimenting with woodblock prints, three of which will feature as the labels for our Artefact #6 Saignée Rosé. What drew you to work in this way?  

“For years I’ve said to myself ‘I should make woodblock prints’ and this year I’ve decided to do it. I work into the wood with hand chiselling tools, carving as I would draw. The initial idea of a woodblock might have been reproducibility, but each print is wonderfully individual. The application of the pigment on the blocks can be manipulated and I love the accidents that occur. I enjoy trying to hold onto control of something that could collapse into mess any moment.  

“The labels have developed out of the drawn designs for the Artelium sculpture. I took the design for a walk, seeing how many iterations I could make out of that form, so the arched silhouette remains similar, but the finish is variable. It keeps each piece dynamic. 

“Printing is a way for me to work with some beautiful natural pigments found in the soil such as red ochre. When I’m working in this way I’m working directly with wood and with earth, bringing them back together in a new form. On coming to my studio to see the development of the sculpture, Mark made a connection between the colour of the red ochre pigments I was exploring in my prints and the blood-like colour of the Saignée rosé, which prompted the collaboration on the Artefact #6 labels. Red ochre is an ancient pigment, one humans have always created with. We all know the Paleolithic images of a handprints rendered in red ochre. It was a statement of existence, of ‘I am.’ This link between humans, creativity and earth has always existed, proving that we are not in opposition to nature, we are part of it.”

Wood, Earth, an exhibition which explores the interconnectedness of life and landscape, runs from the 4th – 19th May to coincide with the Artist Open Houses 2024 Festival. A selection large & small interior and exterior pieces, a bespoke sculpture for the Artelium grounds, and a collection of woodblock prints will be exhibited. Artefact #6, featuring three different labels designed by Walter, will be launched alongside the exhibition.