Exquisite art in wood

Alby Redman can do amazing things with wood. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

You could call Alby Redman a woodturner: he can do amazing things with wood. But he is also an artist and his woodturning skills have enabled him to develop techniques to amaze and mystify.

Alby is November's guest artist at Red Door Gallery in Putiki, and to view his work is to discover things you never thought possible.
His kinetic sculptures are works in progress, as he discovers better ways of making them, growing them in scale and giving them longer lasting movement. There are two on display, each very different, in the exhibition room.
"Something with movement definitely creates interest."

He also paints, and his three paintings on show are captivating, colourful and clear manifestations of talent.
"That's done with acrylic and I've been playing with silicone and different oils to get cells forming in the paint."

But the wood ...

He has a piece from his early efforts. It's a simple piece of turned wood but because it was green at the time it has warped into an agreeable shape while retaining its smooth, simple lines.

"From there it has evolved a little bit," he says, with typical quiet understatement. "I did some live edge stuff then started carving. Now I've gone into segmented work, which is a lot of little pieces glued together."

Alby Redman's vessels in two different styles. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

He uses a range of woods of no fixed workability — blackwood, walnut, rimu, cherry, chestnut, oak — and enhances the assembled segmented pieces with coloured ink dyes and carving. Many of his works give the illusion of being crafted from tiny wood mosaic wood parts, such is the detail carved with a chisel. In fact, each piece does have a lot of component parts — some have thousands!

"It's quite a process."

Each is so precisely cut, layered and joined, there is no room for error. He says it not only challenges his ability but stimulates the interest and enjoyment of others.

Most of his work is decorative, with some utilitarian exceptions. There are bowls, platters, vases, planters and more, including a lamp in the shape of a dog and objects simply described as "vessels"
In the middle of the room is Torso, an unusual segmented piece of wooden work.

"Everything is made from timber recycled from old furniture and things that people were throwing out." His work is also on show in the main gallery at Red Door.

Alby and his family came from South Africa to New Zealand, his wife's home, in 2001.
"We decided to come over for a year and never left," he says. They lived in Auckland for most of that time but eventually moved to Whanganui, seeing it as a better place to raise a family. He obtained a transfer through his job and they arrived here knowing no-one.
He joined the woodturners' group in Whanganui and recently featured in The Shed magazine. Alby's work is on display at Red Door Gallery until the end of November.