Take a walk around one of Manchester’s many parks and you’re bound to come across at least one of Karl Macauley’s many wood carvings.
The fine artist from Moss Side has been creating realistic and highly-detailed wood carvings using a chainsaw for seven years now, but he learnt the craft entirely on his own.
“I’m a self-taught artist. I’ve never been to art school, I’ve tried to but they never let me in,” Karl laughs as he sits next to a burning log fire at his yard in Urmston.
“I was in South Wales on the dole, so I went to the job centre and they sent me to a place called The Art Factory.
“This was a place that helped individuals like myself who were unemployed to work on projects that they got commissions from by social landlords and the public.”
Karl says that it was there that he began carving things out of stone, before an opportunity led him into the world of wood.
“Seven years ago, I got a commission from Moss Side Peace Gardens. They asked if I could carve a few trees for them and I said ‘of course I can’, even though I had never even used a chainsaw before.
“So, I bought a chainsaw and learnt on the job.
"It took me about ten days to do something that I can nowadays do in a day.”
Karl’s first three designs, a cat chasing a squirrel up the tree, a tree spirit, and a hummingbird, are still on show at Moss Side Peace Garden on Upper Lloyd Street today.
Since then, he's created a tribute to the victims of the Manchester Arena bomb attack with a tree carving in Longford Park in Stretford and has various animal carvings dotted over Manchester, including in Gatley Park, Platt Fields Park, and Lyme Park.
Through sharing his designs on social media, Karl has been able to get his carvings seen across the world.
He now has over 17,000 likes on his Facebook page.
Taking on private projects from as far wide as Geneva and America, Karl says a lot of the commissions he gets are memorials for people’s pets.
“I’m a detail freak,” he says. “I love all the realism, I’ve got to get it looking exactly like that dog’s face.
"You’ve gotta get a bit of soul and heart in there, that passion.
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"There’s not a lot of carvers out there that are producing a high-level of fine art detail, that’s where I stand out."
Karl says even some of the most intricate designs can be done in a day.
“We’re using chainsaws - imagine what Michelangelo could have done with a chainsaw,” he laughs.
“He would have been able to sculpt things much quicker.”
Having just completed carvings for Heaton Park’s Lakeside Adventure play area, Karl’s next project is on another level to anything he’s ever done before.
“I’m working on a project for the Velodrome.
"They’ve just put down a new track, so I’ve taken some of the old track for a massive piece I’m doing.”
The carving will include the old track with a wood carving of a biker.
The painted design, estimated to be five and a half foot in height, will coincide with the cycling arena’s 25th anniversary.
“It’s only just sunk in,” Karl says of working with one of Manchester’s most iconic sporting venues.
“I didn’t think about how historic the place is and how many records have been broken on this very track.
“It’s a very different project to what I’m used to, it’s difficult but I love the challenge. The challenge is the buzz for me.”
When it comes to wood, Karl says that cedar is his favourite because “it cuts just like butter” and doesn’t tend to rot.
Meanwhile, Karl says that beech wood is the worst to work with.
“As soon as you cut it down and leave it on the floor, it will start to rot. It’s just not approachable.
“I only learnt that while on the job. At first, I was carving with beech thinking it was great.
"Seven years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about wood and now I'm a wood professional.”
The wood that Karl uses comes from a local tree surgeon, while he also gets donations from the council and residents when trees fall down.
Speaking about his craft, Karl says people often find it surprising how comfortable he is with using chainsaws.
“People are scared of chainsaws because they look fearsome and are noisy but they can be handled beautifully once you get to grips with them.
“It’s like being connected with nature or music. Once you’re in tune with something, the mistakes will stop. It takes a while to learn something but once you get there, the errors end.
“It’s instinct now, it’s beautiful. As long as I get the design in my head clearly, I can do it.”
Karl says his struggles to get in art galleries across Manchester has helped him become more defiant about getting his work seen.
“I could never get my work in the art galleries. I’ve tried all my life to get an exhibition but they never even replied to my emails.
“I don’t mind that I can’t get in an art gallery now because I’ve got my own public gallery all over the city.”
You can see more of Karl's chainsaw carvings on his website and his Facebook page.
