I was lucky enough to come across someone with such a talent. He is well known in Barrie for his tricky skateboarding abilities, Jeff Taylor.

Jeff works with soapstone and wood mainly, carving natures various details. And is it ever detailed work! Truly capturing natural beauty is a long and difficult task, with all the many fine details there is to capture.

Jeff has been practicing this art for about three years now; Once introduced to a piece of soapstone, then using materials like minnesota pipe stone and wood. Initially, he carved different animals and pipes. When he was first introduced to the minnesota pipe stone, his mission was to carve it into an pipe. With success, he made the pipe, but used piece of black walnut for his yard for the stem. And then a new love was born, again!

Carved Dining set

A whole new material, wood allows you to capture the beauty of fine details. That was the main inspiration to continue working with wood, so say Jeff. It is a material in which he could see and feel beauty from all angle’s. Discovering this love and talent at a young age leaves many paths for this merging artist.

When asking Jeff his inspirations for his work, the answer was quite simple. Nature, animals, people, music…life! And what a great craft to capture these everyday, seemingly simple objects that, under a watchful eye, have much complexity to them. With a piece of material in his hand, Jeff has no limitations with what he can create. The joy of bringing life to a simple piece of wood or stone is an inspiring and fulfilling feeling, I am sure.

Life Size Hand Chair

Any specific music that inspires him? Not necessarily, but some that came to mind are Lynard Skynard and The Tragically Hip. Overall, as I strongly agree, all music is inspiring in some way or to some degree.

As you can see, art and artists are all around us, waiting to be created and found. Look forward to seeing more work by Jeff Taylor here! If you can’t wait, click here for more photos!

Interested in this art? To learn more or purchase any art, you can contact the artist via e-mail: jeff-taylor@live.com

Jeff will be carving at the Carvapalooza in Brooksdale, just outside of London, ON, on March 27th-29th with many other talents like himself!

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