Patrick Skidd blew the socks off the local Woodcrafters Guild members at their recent meeting with his presentation of a unique process he developed for working with wood.
With his creative talents, vision, attention to detail, and skills above and beyond, Skidd’s works start with an end goal in mind. He skillfully laminates together a volume of special dye-coloured veneer that most Guild members weren’t even aware existed. He then sculpts impressive 3-D works of art from these multi-coloured engineered glue-ups. Some of his sculptures have maritime themes – sail boats, tropical fish, or inspirations he gets from Canada’s Group of Seven.
Skidd also creates complex, intricately-designed mandalas employing his methods of work, combined with marquetry techniques. Mosaics of different-coloured woods combined with coloured veneers strategically placed enhance design details. Currently Skidd has a five-foot diameter mandala in the planning stage.
His unique work is popular. Lee Valley Tools featured his designs on their catalogue’s front cover three times. Locally, his work was featured at Sunshine Coast Arts Council Works in Wood, he participated in the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl several times, and was invited to exhibit at Community Forests Wood Expo this past fall. His work was on display a few weeks ago at the grand opening of the Grove Front Gallery located on the waterside of the Watermark complex in Sechelt.
Skidd’s work can be found in galleries from Nova Scotia to Salt Spring Island, and work is extraordinarily awe-inspiring to see in real life. To top it off, he doesn’t use any fancy tools.
– Submitted by Ken Karaloff, Suncoast Woodcrafters Guild
