Meet the Leeds teacher wielding a chainsaw to create street art by carving trees in Yorkshire

From championships held in the same parish that HRH The Queen resides, to representing England, to being hired for weekend demonstrations around the country - chainsaw carving, which started some years ago as a hobby for an enthusiastic young student with an active imagination, is now turning into quite the lucrative side-line.

However, for wood carver Shane Green, 56, it is a compliment to his 33-year-old day job as an art teacher. He has been head of art at Prince Henry’s Grammar School at Otley for the last 25 years.

He said: “I have never given up on education - it is important but now I am getting commissions and all my holidays are carving. Fortunately my family are university age and are more independent.

“I have been carving since I was at sixth form. I had a really good art teacher, who I am still in touch with. He gave me a bit of clay and said make something out of that. I came back with a passion for sculpture. I went to Birmingham Art College and they gave me a tree trunk to slow me down. Good people influenced me when I was younger.

“I draw, etch and paint and do other varieties of art but the carving I decided to focus on to get better.

“I have been doing a lot of championships recently in the UK. There was the Sandringham Cup and I have been representing England for two years. They invite you to come and carve for the weekend and demonstrate the skills of chainsaw carving.”

However, you don’t need to head to Norfolk and national shows to see his work. Chances are if you have wandered through various areas of Leeds woodland and come across some weird and wonderfully shaped trees, Mr Green, known as The Yorkshire Carver was behind it - and it is these local commissions, which he takes particular pride in.

The most recent one to be completed is a 20 feet high piece, sited on Woodhouse Ridge between Headingley and Hyde Park Corner, and unveiled last month.

It is a ‘Celebration Of The Arts’ and has more than ten symbols including an art palette, trumpet, accordian, drama masks, top hat and plants.

Last year he finished ten large-scale wooden chainsaw sculptures on Otley Chevin which form part of a three kilometre route for jogging, walking and wheelchair access. These sculptures represent a historical time-line starting with fossils, cavemen, chariots, a deer family, Chippendale chair, elephants and finish with mountain bikes and climbers representing the modern recreational use of the park.

Another popular piece is the Tropical World totem in Roundhay which Mr Green is set to re-visit and spruce up.

It is these public pieces that he prefers to create.

He explained: “Woodhouse Ridge was a really lovely commission. I spent a bit more time on it to get it really smooth. I want it to be peaceful, not aggressive and enjoyed getting it to that high standard.

“For the last ten years I have been predominantly working on public sites. I rarely take private commissions. I do it where there will be a lot of foot traffic and people can benefit from seeing the art or sculpture and carving.

“There is not a lot of it in Yorkshire. There are a lot in the West Midlands and Shropshire so I think it should be put somewhere that it is significant.”

Mr Green goes through one chainsaw a year and never wastes any wood. All the off-cuts he donates to pubs and schools and has been known to turn up at school with a boot full of wood that staff can take for log burners.

The trees that he carves have been cropped because they are dangerous, or declared dead wood by the city council, but are still in the ground so he sees the carvings as them being brought back to life.

“Public spaces are special to people and I value putting something special in there for them.”

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