Chain-saw wood carvings in Albany, WA

| Chris Riley
A chainsaw was used to carve this chainsaw

We’ve just spent three lovely nights in Albany WA with our good friends Kaye and Brian. We had a few things ear-marked to do with the first being  a visit to the Darrell Radcliffe Sculpture Drive, located at 333 Mercer Drive, Albany. There’s a sign at the gate asking visitors to remain inside their vehicle, and there’s  a donation box at the conclusion of the trail.

I’d recommend taking at least a 30 minutes to drive the trail, and stopping from time to time to look high, low, close and far away. There’s an amazing amount of sculptures. Some are very tiny and would be easy to miss, some are long and thin and close to the ground, also very easy to miss. And others are huge, and while their size makes them unmissable, the detail takes a few minutes to obsorb.

A man with his dog at his feet, and owls at his head
Take a closer look at the detail in his face

And now I’ll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves:

Pilgrims

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This is one of many with dogs featured
Check out the chicks in the nest
Serenity of pouring water
A quiet place to read a book
The detail was superb
A honeyeater
A cowboy on his bronco
My favourite – the flute player. Look closely at his eyes, they’re carved out of the wood (not stuck on)

These are only a few of many sculptures to see. The detail was unbelievable, and to think they’ve all been carved using a chainsaw – incredible. The eyes of the flute player captured me, and was my favourite. Can you pick a favourite?

Next time you visit Albany WA, please put this place on your list. It’s amazing! And unbelievable that it’s an unsupervised, drive through place, with only a donation box at the end of the drive. Thank you Darrell Radcliffe for allowing us access to your property, and for sharing your wonderful artwork with us.

11 thoughts on “Chain-saw wood carvings in Albany, WA”

    1. Apparently the artist used to sculpt in metal, and each sculpture would take several months. Now he sculpts in wood with chainsaws (he uses 7 different sized saws), and he says he can finish a piece in only three days. He must have a real talent, and an eye for seeing the potential in a piece of wood.

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