Meet chainsaw artist The Yorkshire Carver as he unveils his latest sculpture trail

“I heard from one of the volunteers that Kiplin Hall had received some funding for a biodiversity-inspired art project and so I contacted them to see if they would like to me to carve some sculpture for them,” says Green.

The meandering lakeside paths at Kiplin Hall serve as the backdrop to the series of timber sculptures, carved by chainsaw and inspired by the biodiversity and natural environment in the gardens and grounds.

"The grounds and the lake at Kiplin Hall are stunning. I’d been to watch an open air Shakespeare play there and I liked the idea that they wanted to create something educational,” Green adds.

Inspired by this diverse habitat, the Yorkshire Carver created several sculptures depicting all that creeps, crawls, slithers, swims, flaps and frolics at Kiplin.

Three of the free-standing sculptures are of birds while the trail also includes five reliefs of other animals and nature inspired creations.

“The target demographic is seven to 14 and so I have made all the sculptures quite low level to appeal to a child’s eye view.”

Green has been head of art at Prince Henry’s Grammar School at Otley for more than 25 years.

“I have never given up on education – it is important but now I am getting commissions and all my holidays are carving. I’m not doing quite so many private commissions as I just don’t have the time as I really want to do more competitions, but my work can be seen in the likes of Harlow Carr Gardens," says Green who has represented England at wood carving competitions – many of them speed carving with a chainsaw – for the last few years.

Always an artistic child, he was encouraged to pursue his creative side by his school art teacher who he keeps in touch with even though he is now in his eighties,.

“I had a really good art teacher, who I am still in touch with. He gave me a bit of clay and said make something out of that. I came back with a passion for sculpture,” says Green.

“I went to Birmingham Art College and they gave me a tree trunk to slow me down. Good people influenced me when I was younger.

“I draw, etch and paint and do other varieties of art but the carving I decided to focus on to get better.”

But it wasn’t until a teacher exchange to Pennsylvania that Green upgraded his hammer and chisel for a chainsaw.

"I saw there was a carving competition close to where I was in America and the head said I could go and take part.

"I had a small chainsaw but someone lent me a bigger one and I was hooked. The chainsaw allows you to create something intricate but really quickly.”

Chances are if you have wandered through various areas of Leeds woodland and come across some weird and wonderfully shaped trees and it is these local commissions that Green takes particular pride in.

Last year he completed is a 20ft-high piece, sited on Woodhouse Ridge between Headingley and Hyde Park Corner. It is called Claudio: A Celebration of the Arts and features more than 10 symbols including an art palette, trumpet, accordion, drama masks, top hat and plants.

The year before he finished 10 large-scale wooden chainsaw sculptures on Otley Chevin which form part of a three kilometre route for jogging, walking and wheelchair access.

These sculptures represent a historical time-line starting with fossils, cavemen, chariots, a deer family, Chippendale chair and elephants and finishing with mountain bikes and climbers representing the modern recreational use of the park.

Another popular piece is the Tropical World totem in Roundhay which Green is set to revisit and spruce up.

“The Tropical World piece is 35 feet high and need four tiers of scaffolding but once you are in the zone you don’t think about the height you just break it down into sections and take it one at a time.”

It is these public pieces that he prefers to create. “Woodhouse Ridge was a really lovely commission. I spent a bit more time on it to get it really smooth. I wanted it to be peaceful, not aggressive and enjoyed getting it to that high standard.

“For the last 10 years I have been predominantly working on public sites. I rarely take private commissions. I do it where there will be a lot of foot traffic and people can benefit from seeing the art or sculpture and carving.”

Green goes through one chainsaw a year and never wastes any wood. All the off-cuts he donates to pubs and schools and has been known to turn up at school with a boot full of wood that staff can take for log burners.

The trees that he carves have been cropped because they are dangerous, or declared dead wood by the city council, but are still in the ground so he sees the carvings as them being brought back to life.

“This wood would just be burnt otherwise. I am lucky enough that the woodyard let me work on the pieces for Kiplin Hall on site which really helped,” he adds.He mainly carves at weekends and during the holidays as he is tied up at work the rest of the time."

Kiplin Hall and Gardens’ curator Alice Rose, is thrilled with the chainsaw sculptures.

“We had been thinking of the possibility of adding a sculpture trail to the grounds for a while and then when we got this funding and were approached by Shane it seemed the perfect fit,” she says.

She adds that many visitors to Kiplin are surprised to learn that the serene appearance of the large lake has not always been so. It is actually a relatively new addition to the 400-year-old house, created in the 1990s as the result of gravel extraction. Income from the gravel quarry paid for the restoration of the historic house, saving it from dereliction and demolition.

Today the lake and surrounding woodland provide a habitat to numerous species of wildlife. Wild geese, swans and heron are a daily sight. Fish, frogs and insects populate the water. Foxes, rabbits and deer are more elusive but are often seen at dusk and dawn.

"Biodivesrity was at the centre of the brief. Since the lake was created there is so much biodiversity at Kiplin in three main habitats and we wanted to reflect that in the sculptures. We wanted to reflect what you can see in nature, in art,” adds Rose.

Kiplin Hall is running a series of special events over the Easter holidays. From April 1 to 16, take a guided eco tour of Kiplin with its team of eco volunteers. On April 22, Earth Day, live chainsaw carving demonstrations and family fun activities are on offer as part of hundreds of events taking place nationally in the Wild Escape. kiplinhall.co.uk