Hi, I'm a Florida sculptor/artist Gil Watson and I have been commissioned to create a sculpture out of an oak tree that was dying and needed to be cut down.
Mr. & Mrs. Rodgers of Homosassa Florida contacted me, after having seen some of the other sculptures I had carved around the area. Together we came up with the idea of an old fishing Captain. The prep had to be done first, which meant having a tree company come out to cut down the tree to my specs.
The next step was for me was to begin the sculpting process using a chainsaw. Once everything was roughed out I then used an angle grinder to get finer detail and finally chisels for the hand-carved look.
To utilize the extra wood that was above the statue I carved seagulls in flight. This part of the carving was very technical to have the seagulls appear in flight yet to leave enough wood so that the integrity of the sculpture is still there and the birds don't 'take flight' in high winds.
The sculpture was Christened 'Captain Morgan' by the owners and he stands proudly on the bank of Grand Canal in Homosassa with three fish in one hand, a lantern in the other that lights the way at night.
More info: Facebook
