A NEW month-long exhibition featuring figurative and abstract stone sculptures is set to open.
Cheshire artist Estelle Hazlewood is putting her work on display at the Northern-scapes Gallery in Alderley Edge from Thursday, February 29.
Running until March 28, the exhibition will also feature regular opportunities to meet Estelle and watch a free stone carving demonstration.
Estelle, who uses hand tools and traditional carving techniques to create her pieces from serpentine, alabaster and Staffordshire sandstone, is excited to launch the exhibition.
She said: "I am delighted to have the chance to share my work with local art enthusiasts and people curious about what’s involved in carving stone.
"Held within the body of stone are the scars, bruises and transformations that testify to its journey through time.
"I respond to strata or forms in the rock, feeling my way through points of resistance and light.
"As a sculptor, I am adding a new chapter to the stone’s ongoing story. In this way, I describe my sculpting technique as a form of conversation with the stone."
Estelle uses serpentine, alabaster and Staffordshire sandstone to create her pieces at her workshop in Bollington, near Macclesfield.
Landscape artist Jessica Owen, who owns the London Road gallery, said: “Estelle's sculpture smoothly glides between the modern and traditional.
"My imagination is particularly fired up by her use of stone from nearby. Ancient Staffordshire sandstone holds such a weight of history. Now being held in time in a new form."
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