The train is so long it stretches way back over the border
Out of unhindered conflict a train like this is quite a monster
Of ghosts we are and keeping time to a frosted clock
I’m going to bless you brother and bless you sister
You pass us and we remember you and we wave and we wave
But who has the strength to put this train back on the right track
The train sitting in the station changing the points
Would divert it to a place where peace is that place
It should be ruled as such that here is a travelling forgiveness
A border crossed and we have a border open
But the truth – the truth is heavy – the truth
Is a stone and under it children are dying in the rubble
The train sitting in the station it’s a busy one and its driver is a sad one
Who gets on are they really the fortunate ones life back but not to how it was
In the face of hope if hope seems less – hope is no less the traveller
No less the unsettled ghostly passenger and
Worth the ticket the train’s derailing for a brighter safer future
In Spring 2014 Man of Sorrows moved from The Falkirk Wheel Exhibition to Warwickshire. It is always a happy day for Ronald Rae when he moves a sculpture to its final home. He likes to be there to oversee the installation and to make sure the client is happy too. This short video shows what a convivial experience it can be.
The kind of prayer I want to pray
Is a prayer from its beginning to its end that it will solve itself
My cruise and my marches around doubt
I want them to be in their geography that they are come to a close
For disappearing is my reference it’s not with
Thoughts that you make a prayer but with your two hands attempting what thoughts can’t manage
The snows of the flesh better than you they know how to handle the fires within them
Carved in a fine-textured Portuguese granite this sculpture portrays the suffering of Christ. All of Rae’s earliest sculptures were inspired by religious themes. This emotive work is carved to a smooth finish which adds to serenity of the sad curled figure.
To see a short video of Ronald Rae talking about this sculpture click on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksCIPWPB0nI
To see a video of Man of Sorrows being installed at its new home in Warwickshire click on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pPMQhO3h_U
Watch the last hammer blows of Ronald Rae’s Gorilla Family sculpture which he completed on 23rd January 2014. The sculpture took him seven months to carve. Every time he finishes a work he says this will definitely be his last granite sculpture – his mind is willing but his body says emphatically “No!” Only time will tell…
On Sunday 29th September at 8pm on BBC2 television Ronald Rae’s Tyger Tyger features in The Crane Gang a documentary about unusual lifts done by Ainscough‘s heavy cranes. This programme shows Ronald Rae’s fifteen tonne granite sculpture Tyger Tyger being uplifted from The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland, the transportation and installation at its new home in Somerset with all the problems it involves. The programme is now on YouTube.
Watch the progress of Ronald Rae’s seven tonne Gorilla sculpture during the past ten weeks. The heat of the summer deterred him from working as often as he would have liked. Gradually the gorilla is emerging from the stone with the surprise of a baby gorilla too!
See Ronald Rae begin his latest carving of a Gorilla yet another endangered species. The seven tonne granite stone came from the woods next to Dalbeattie Quarry. He reckons the stone was quarried 150 years ago and has been waiting for him all that time. The video shows his progress over the past two weeks.
Ronald Rae’s fifteen tonne granite sculpture Tyger Tyger moved from The Falkirk Wheel to its new home in Somerset on May 15th. The site for the sculpture required 400 metres of tracking across a field to reach the site. This short video shows the expertise of many people to make this happen. Please excuse the sound production at the beginning of this video – the wind was howling with intermittent sleet showers!
The BBC also filmed the Tyger Tyger being moved to Somerset as part of their series called The Crane Gang. It was broadcast on BBC2 on 29th September 2013 at 8pm. You can now see it on YouTube.
Paint on cardboard melon boxes. 24″ x 16″ x 6″
These artworks were part of a mixed exhibition at The Kilmorack Gallery in Beauly, Inverness-shire in 2012. The exhibition was titled The Art of Humour. NB. The cat was not included in the exhibition and is not for sale!
Hand-carved granite sculptures in public and private collections
