Looking back to 2019 and this time last year 12/5/23

Looking back to 2019 and this time last year 12/5/23 ……A small garden road side hedge completed on a sunny weekend in March 2019, being a roadside job a wooden sign was placed in the finished hedge. Thinking that’s another ticked of that seasons list, rejuvenated and saved. Then it all started to happen , about mid summer 2020 I happened across a couple of pictures of good friends drawn and painted by @toby_wiggins_art , Master Blacksmith Simon Grant -Jones @simongrantjones and our late friend Alan Brown 8th/9th generation Hurdle Maker. I passed a compliment and from that found out they were part of a collection of a long term project by Toby relating to the countryside and rural workers. Then a good few months later I was contacted by Toby, asking would I be interested in being part of the project after he had seen my wooden signs in this hedge, which just happened to be on route to his studio. So now jumping ahead a couple of years and great deal of work by Toby culminated in these pictures. (others in original post last year) The portraits were part of a collection submitted as entries to the 2023 Royal Portrait Gallery annual show this week last year by Toby. Now, having a little article written in a local paper or magazine about hedgelaying and my work with a couple of pictures is very nice, to also be part of a rural Dorset collection is brilliant, however to then be part of a collection to be hung in a London Gallery starts to become very surreal for a Dorset Hedgelayer, with the icing on the cake for Toby, winning The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture 2023. So now a year on and I still look back amazed at how all the little bits fell into place and I ended up being on a Gallery wall in London. Even had the flags out . Thanks once again to Toby. #royalsocietyofportraitpainters #surreal #hedgelaying #dorsetsmallbusiness #billhooks #countrylife #triptothebigsmoke #neverthought #traditionalskills #toby_wiggins_art #simongrantjonesblacksmith #greatexperience #dorset #preservingthepastprotectingthefuture #traditionalhedgelayer #countryside #rurallife #ecology #wildlifecorridors