Adelaide Hills International Sculpture Park

8 international sculptors ... 22 days of gut-busting hard and often dirty work ... 31 March – 21 April 2014 - carving their dreams and ideas in stone.
Select 8 acclaimed sculptors from around the world, bring them to the Adelaide Hills near Hahndorf, and let them loose with the tools of their trade.

Today we visited this quite amazing exhibition which takes place every few years. It is an exciting sculptural challenge that takes place in the Adelaide Hills - between Hahndorf and Verdun.

Our various forward thinking Hills Councils, and one from the Fleurieu Peninsula, commission a particular piece of sculpture to be displayed in their council area. The Mt. Barker Council has actually commissioned 3 sculptures.

The location we visited was The Cedars, the historic home (and now museum) of our legendary South Australian artist Sir Hans Heysen. Those of you who know and love art will know his name as our most famous Aussie painter of gum trees, and in particular, our iconic and massive River Red Gums found in many places around the Adelaide Hills.

His property is the site for this year's Adelaide Hills International Sculpture Symposium.
See closer for more detail.

Not surprisingly, the noise was intense as 8 sculptors, chipped, hacked, cut, polished, and refined their incredible work. It was such a rare treat being able to stand up close to these incredible artists, and breath the dust and literally feel the power of what they were doing.

The artist that I chose to blip today was a Chinese Aussie, Hew Chee Fong from Peachester, Queensland, Australia. Fong has exhibited in Australia and the USA and has received over 25 public commissions.

His work is represented in the Sunshine Coast University; Noosa Botanic Gardens, Cottontree Park, Myroochydore; Thursday Plantation Sculpture Park; Brisbane Port Authority; the Queensland Art Gallery and Newcastle Region Art Gallery.

Here you can see him polishing his marble sculpture. All sculptors had the use of 240v power if they needed it for their various tools. This helps to speed up the process and also adds an extra edge to all that they do.