My 'lookout tower' I hope to build full size one day
The activity of building models and then creating garden features with stone is not very different than what a sculptor would do. The difference is that while a sculptor who works with stone normally removes material that he doesn't want from his stone, the making of a dry laid 'creation' involves the 'additive' approach.
Artists of varying disciplines, working in other mediums use the additive approach too, be it adding colour and layers of glazes to paintings, or welding metal to steel sculptures, cementing tiles to mosaics or just adding lumps of clay or wax to models and figurines.
My father was a sculptor. He made bronzes, created with welded copper and also worked in polyester resin and wood. His pieces were usually figurative and almost always impressionistic. He was very successful as an artist and it was because he was very good at what he did.
I didn't realize until recently how the work I do and the approach I take with stone is not dissimilar to his vision and output as a sculptor. Whether it's the whimsical element or the impressionistic feeling or just the capturing a certain ambience or sense of place, I don't know.
'Tower' by Barrie Shaw-Rimmington
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