Eldon House

There are currently 16 trees on the London Tree Trunk Tour, but now only 15 stops. If you are visiting London from outside of the city, there is a good chance that one of your first stops after leaving Highway 401 will be the London Tourism Visitors Centre.

'Eldon House', a carving representing one of London's other tourist attractions, is located beside the visitor's centre, at 696 Wellington Road South. This carving has recently been joined by Mother Nature, most likely due to issues with that trunk's structural stability in its old Queens Av. location. The Visitor's Centre is about a ten minute drive from downtown, so its not a walking tour, by any means. Having more that one sculpture in the same place does give people more of an opportunity to stop and take a look at what they are all about.

'Eldon House' is somewhat similar to 'Charles S. Hyman' in its construction. There are a few elements which were carved into the trunk itself, and many other parts of the design are plaques made in a workshop and attached to the tree once it was finished in this location.

There is, unlike any of the other stops on the tour, a commemorative plaque in front of the trunk, which gives a little bit of info about the carving, and also promotes Eldon House itself.

The trunk has large, rough, rounded flowers at the top, which look like daisies, or perhaps peonies, London's official flower. They face both the front and back of the piece.










The elements that relate to Eldon house itself are divided into 8 separate areas on the trunk. Two designs are placed every 90 degree turn around the tree, giving the carving 4 different 'faces' to look at.





The front face has an owl's face recessed into the top and carved in relief. It was carved from the solid piece of trunk. The bottom is a front view of Eldon house with its wide veranda. 

Travelling around the trunk counter-clockwise, the next face is two portraits, Amelia Ryerse Harris above, and John Harris below. These images appear to have been created from scans of official portraits inside the house.

The rear face of the carving has a compass on the top. John Harris was a surveyor in the British Navy, and one of the initial surveyors when Upper Canada was being mapped. This is likely what the compass represents. Below, there is a view of one of the ladies of Eldon House in the dining room.  The house was well known at the time for its hospitality. That reputation was not harmed by the fact that the Harris family had seven daughters to court.

The fourth face's plaques picture an elephant's foot umbrella stand, and a military soldier in a doorway. The umbrella stand is a well known trophy, collected by John's grandson George Henry Ronalds Harris during his time in Africa. The soldier is, if you look closely, somewhat transparent, which makes me think he represents the ghost of Eldon House. This story seems to have a higher level of interest than when I visited Eldon House on school field trips as a child.

 I would like to make a couple of notes about how the caving was made. The main body of the tree is a chainsaw carved trunk, with trees and leaves. Almost all of the detail work is slabs of wood carved with a computer aided design technique, and then attached after the trunk was placed in its location. For the chainsaw carving purist, this might not be what was expected in a sculpture. I'm also not sure how well the pieces will age and colour relative to the different wood on the trunk itself.

The signature is a subtle one again. The initials of Neil Cox, and Mary-Ann Jack-Bleach, the collaborating artists, are carved into
the trunk, above a date of 2010.





Although this is not a movie, I do have bonus footage! Check out the arrival and completion of this tree carving, courtesy of Tourism London.

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Curious about this artist? Try Neil Cox's Links

Mother Nature

Located at 326 Queens Av., west of Waterloo St. is the tree trunk carving 'Mother Nature'. Edit: It has come to my attention that this carving has been re-located to the London Tourism grounds on Wellington Road South. I suspect this was due to safety concerns about the integrity of the base. The London Tourism website tells us that the carving was done by Neil Cox. There are no indications of a specific sponsorship for this sculpture, though it does sit on property in front of Dr. Reavell dentistry and Willow Medi-Spa. It was carved from a trunk that had 2 large main branches, and we can start looking at it from the bottom up.







There are ears of corn and what looks like a squash or pumpkin tucked in behind them on the lower side. These are symbols of harvest time and nature's bounty. Through contact with the artist, I have found out that these plants were chosen because they were grown by native peoples.

















On the rear of the trunk, there are large flowers carved in relief, including a bold and deeply petaled rose. I would interpret these as symbols of nature's beauty.











On the east side, there are maple leaves, perhaps to acknowledge the tree before it became a carving. These are done in low relief, and in more of a stylized way than other parts of this sculpture.










The top of the tree follows the natural split in the trunk, on the left, a path winds up to a Victorian style house. Take a look directly behind the carving if you are on Queens Av, and you will see the carved house matches its features exactly with the real house behind. There may not be a cat in the gable window of the real house, though.

 

 Curving up the left side are skyscrapers, as we symbolically progress from a natural,wild time, to the modern age in our city.

From behind, one skyscraper arcs wildly over to one side, but the attention to detail is wonderful, with windows and supports cut in all around the structure. 

On the right side of the split trunk, is Mother Nature herself. The peaceful expression on the face is wonderful. There is a natural look to her face, her flowing hair and her expression. There is a child seemingly rising out of the top of her head, arms raised to the sky.

Consider again, the delicate work accomplished without the shelter of a workshop, and the results become that much more impressive.

 


There is, in fact, a signature on the carving, which was small enough, and subtle enough that I missed it the first time I photographed this tree trunk. With apologies to Mr. Cox, here it is.




The result of combining the natural and the man-made might seem to set the carving up for a conflict between its elements, but in looking at the finished result, I think the message seems to be more about balance.

Now, as to the condition of the piece, it is certainly suffering from splitting and cracking at the upper portion. Aesthetically, some of the drama has faded from the sculpture, quite literally. The pictures taken shortly after completion on Tourism London's map show rich colour variations made by the artist scorching the surface of the wood with a propane torch. There is more depth and contrast created between elements when done right. By now the weather has washed away that dimension of the piece. Time will tell if any restoration occurs on this stop of the Tree Trunk Tour.

Looking for more art like this? Well try these links -

Neil Cox is also listed as the artist for 'Charles Smith Hyman' on this project.

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Springbank

Located at 462 Springbank Drive, east of Wonderland Rd, and west of Kernohan Parkway, is 'Springbank', another of the 15 stops on Tourism London's Tree Trunk Tour. It is located off the corner of the parking lot of the Springbank Garden Center.  Though it is not a large or overly ambitious sculpture, it is notable for being the extreme westernmost carving on the Tree Trunk Tour.

If you were planning on seeing all of the completed carvings in 2011, this one would be best done first or last, depending on your direction of approach. It is perhaps an eight or ten minute drive from its nearest companion tree, on Queens Av, so not a walking tour distance.

The tree fits with the garden theme of the business behind it. It has a large daisy on the top front surface. In the middle of the front is a massive sunflower. There is a really natural texture and flow to the petals here.














The sunflower has large detailed leaves coming off of its stem as well. This was a true chainsaw carving and a lot of the tool marks are still in evidence.














At the top of the tree are a clump of tulips, which are rougher than some of the other detailed pieces you can see around the rest of the tour, but they are not add-on pieces. There is no join of any kind, as they were a part of the original trunk here. This is a much more impressive feature when this is taken into account.

The signature confirms that this is another Robbin Wenzoski creation. Looks like he had some extra time for the signature on this one, with a very stylized logo, and a 2009 date as well. The tree trunk is in good condition, which is not all that remarkable, as it was completed less than 3 years ago.

I often finish an entry off at this point, but I have a little something extra with this carving. Click here for a bonus gallery of the creation of 'Springbank'.

Or, if you've seen enough of this tree, you can always-


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Woodfield 1840-2007

 

"Woodfield" is a carving located  at 581 William St. in downtown London. It is near the west end of Rosedale Av. The sculpture commemorates the neighbourhood known as Woodfield, which covers most of the east side of the downtown core. A brief history of the neighbourhood can be found on the Woodfield Community Association's website.

The title of the carving is very prominent on this trunk, large letters at eye level stand out very well. I think it reflects the pride that the sponsors have in their community. This is the same organization that commissioned the first carved trunk, 'Convergence' on Peter St.

The main carving on the side of tree is a squirrel, carved in relief, hiding behind a tree. The winding roots and branches carry the eye both up and down around the tree.

As the tree pattern continues, we see the leaves of the tree, which appear to be that of a silver maple. I will, in future, try to find information about what kind of trunk this was actually carved out of.

 The top of the tree, when viewed from the south side, is taken up by four very weighty looking acorns. large oak leaves are draped down from the trunk cap.










When viewed from the north side, however, we see that the acorns were hiding the real prize, a rather amusingly depicted squirrel, digging for all he's worth! Half his body has disappeared into the tree, but if he wants to hid the massive acorns, he'll need a big hole.

Well, would you look at that, it appears he's stuck his head out halfway down the tree! That's determination. I'm curious if we are being led to believe that this little guy lives in Squirreltopia! Or that he's just blessed with a huge stash of acorns.

I always try to take a look at the signature on a piece, if I can find one, and this is a Robbin Wenzoski creation, as are most of the trunks on the tour. Its the block letter logo this time. The tree also had the official Tree Trunk Tour plug inserted into it. I first noticed it on the carving "Come Together and Grow". I'm a bit surprised to find it's not on every trunk.







 
Condition issues are usually the last thing I note, and this trunk has a lot of damage on unsealed areas. It looks like mother nature is trying to do what it would to a normal dead tree, and the insects and fungus are starting to take their toll.





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