By Corey Everitt
If you have passed through Army Road in the last month you may have noticed an interesting sculpture appear on one of the paddocks.
This is sculptor Brett Davies who for the last 20 years has been working with wood to create works from chess sets to abstract art.
‘Art of Igmus’ is the formal name, and for Davies a lot of it is travel.
He has to drive regularly between his two main areas of work, Pakenham and Castlemaine. He will also find himself travelling on site for commissions that can take him from Tasmania to the Northern Territory.
However, it’s Pakenham that is traditionally home, the place that he grew up.
It had only been recently that he displayed some of his latest works by a paddock on Army Road, one being a large sculpted wombat and an abstract piece commissioned by a local council and soon to be installed at a playground.
Each piece gives a slice of Davies’ work; you have the wombat, a playful piece that all can love as a garden ornament or a doorstop and then an abstract piece fit to be attentively observed in its play of form and abstraction.
Davies was always artistically inclined, but didn’t start with wood sculpting off-the-bat in his career.
“I started just with chisels, I found some old rusty chisels in a friend’s shed,” Davies said.
“I had already been painting and drawing before that and I found those chisels when I was 21, 22.
“Just thought they were interesting, so I cleaned up the chisels and started chipping away.”
From there it developed into the core of his art, sketching and painting are still applied but mostly in service to developing a sculpture.
“I really enjoy using wood, the smell of it, the texture of it and also it’s just a bit more unique I think than painting and drawing,” Davies said.
“When I first found the chisels I wasn’t thinking this is what I’m going to do, I just enjoyed it.
“I quite like the physicality of the big pieces as well, swinging the chainsaw, moving your body around.
“Just a much different process than sitting with some canvas and paints.”
He has exhibited his works numerous times over the years across the State from Castlemaine to the inner city.
This is the main place where he can showcase his more personal expression in sculpting, it’s the abstraction and play with form of modern sculpting that influences him particularly through pioneers such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Constantin Brâncuși.
“They’re all early 20th century sculptors that were first dancing with abstract forms before a lot of other people were, really,” Davies said.
“You get a lot more freedom to play around with abstract form, it’s a little bit more forgiving.
“You just feel like the options are a bit more expansive when you are working with new shapes.”
He does a big exhibition roughly once every two years, in the meantime he gets busy with commissions from private patrons to Local Governments.
He will do works such as his very popular wombats and various other wildlife, his puzzling wooden chainlinks all carved together from a single log to sculpting the stump of a recently cut tree.
“I’m always creating new themes and new directions to go,” he said
“Now that I’m adding different media to the sculptures as well, there are just endless opportunities and directions that you can take your work.
“I really enjoy doing the smaller things with the chisels where it’s just quiet and it’s just you tapping away, but I also enjoy getting a big chainsaw and a massive tree stump and leaning into it, making a massive pile of sawdust and a heap of noise.
“As long as I keep being creatively stimulated I’m going to keep doing it.”
You can follow Art of Igmus on Instagram at @brettigmus, there you can also get in touch about commissioning a work or about buying an existing work.
