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Spring Fair Chainsaw Sculpture Bidding Page (18th/19th April)
18th - 19th April Free
So we’re extremely lucky to have a great local chainsaw artist with us this year who’ll be carving a timber sculpture for us again at the Isle of Wight Spring Art & Garden Fair
Paul Sivell is nationally renowned chainsaw artist based on the Isle of Wight and his beautiful and unique nature carvings fetch many hundreds of pounds at auctions and sales.
You can see Paul in action over Good Friday & Easter Saturday at the Fair carving his masterpiece and can you either bid live in person at 4pm on Saturday 19th April, or here on this web page as a secret sealed bid. Paul has submitted a design of their proposed sculpture in advance so you can see what he intends to carve over the two days.
Paul will be joined this year by two guest carvers Richard Tomlin and Mark Buckett who’ll be carving two smaller pieces of sculpture along side Paul’s, which will also be available to bid for at the auction on Saturday or via the online sealed bidding process.
This is an incredible chance to get a unique timber sculpture for your garden that will last for several decades and be the envy of visitors and neighbours!
This year Paul will be carving an incredibly eye catching and practical addition for anyone’s garden in the form of a hardwood timber bench with two stunning horses heads forming the arms on either side. It’s called ‘The Stallion’s Seat’ and will take both days to carve from scratch Take a look at the design below and also an image of a similar bench Paul carved as a commission several years ago:
‘The Stallion’s Seat’ timber sculpture design, approx 4-6ft in length in a long lasting local hard wood which should last for 20 years with regular treatment.
Paul carved this similar bench for a private collector several years ago and it made for a stunning feature piece in a country garden.
Richard and Mark will carving two smaller designs as featured below which will also make lovely features for a garden and will last many years.
More About Paul
Paul is a self-taught wood sculptor based on the Isle of Wight. Most of his common working media are condemned, dead or dying trees, particularly those that are gnarled, twisted or misshapen and have no economic value. Although his working methods are noisy and fuel consuming, he considers himself to be an environmental artist as he creates art by recycling trees that would often otherwise end up in landfill. The majority of Paul’s work is site specific with themes that are inspired by nature, local traditions and mythology.
Paul career background is in forestry, arboriculture and countryside management, but he started experimenting with wood sculpture about 30 years ago. However, it wasn’t until 15 years ago that he made his first public sculptures. The demand for his work has increased steadily since this time with both public and private commissions. Paul has worked throughout the UK, with the exception of Northern Ireland, and has also undertaken commissions in Europe, America and Southern Turkey.
See Paul at work here at last years Fair on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cq0cJBiMObM/
Bidding Guide
As a guide, the minimum sealed bid offer should generally be upwards of £750. This really only just covers the artists time, fuel and timber over the weekend, so lower bids would be deemed inadequate for a piece of original timber art. At the 2023 Spring Fair, Paul carved an amazing sculpture named “The Fox and the Owl” which fetched £1500 at the auction at the end of the event and made an incredible addition to a local garden in Baring Road in Cowes. In 2024 Paul carved a sculpture featuring two squabbling Red Squirrels which fetched a similar price and now sits in pride of place in the owners Seaview garden
How to make a sealed bid for “The Stallion Seat” or the other two sculptures:
Just use the ticketing section below to simply change the ticket quantity to 1 (from 0) to allow you to fill out the required information and make a bid.
Your bid will be treated as a private non-disclosed sealed bid until the time of the public auction which takes place at 4pm on Saturday 19th April at the carving location.
Half the proceeds of the sculpture auction are being donated to Northwood House Charitable Trust to contribute to ongoing maintenance and upkeep costs of Northwood Park on behalf of the local community.
Please note online bidding closes at 3.30pm on Saturday 19th April 2025. Online bids received after this time will be discounted, sorry.
The auction /bidding process:
The highest sealed bid received will become the starting bid at the auction at 4pm on Saturday 19th April 2025 and if no higher bids are received your bid will win the auction, so long as its higher than any reserve that the sculptor has placed on the piece in order to give it a sensible value.
The auction will be conducted at the stated time by the C.O.O of Northwood House Charitable Trust Company Ltd, Darren J. Cool.
If you are present at the time of the auction, you can also increase your bid in person if you wish to.
If you are the winner of the auction and are not present at the time, you will be contacted on the day and asked to make payment prior to collection within 5 days.
Payment will be made to Northwood House Charitable Trust Company Ltd by BACS, card or cash.
You will be responsible for organising the collection of the sculpture at your own cost as soon as practically possible.
Good luck and happy bidding!
Terms and conditions:
- Your bid is not retractable and is binding.
- By making a sealed bid you agree to purchase the sculpture at the price you bid for it if you are the highest bidder at the end of the auction (subject to the reserve being met).
- Do not bid if you are unable to pay the sum you bid.
- You agree to the auction and bidding process as listed above.
- You understand that you cannot collect the sculpture until payment has been fully received by Northwood House Charitable Trust and until that time the sculpture remains the property of the charity.
