A MAJOR sculpture exhibition in support of The Cart Shed two years ago proved so successful that it’s back this year, bigger and better, and it opens on Saturday with a ticketed launch event.

Following the success of the first Out of Nature exhibition held at Newport House in Almeley in aid of The Cart Shed, a project guided by the belief that being involved with nature has benefits for everyone, this year's event will run for three weeks rather than two.

“Last time it had finished by the time that many people had heard about it.” ” says Jenny Daneel Watts who, with painter Bronte Woodruff, has again curated the exhibition, which will again showcase the ways in which sculptors interpret their response to the natural environment and the natural materials with which they work, to create a world of meaning an expression.

There will be 300 pieces made by more than 40 artists set across the beautiful formal gardens of Newport House, and its newly restored two and a half acre kitchen garden. All the pieces celebrate our link with nature, serving as a reminder that in spite of a modern lifestyle that often treats Nature as irrelevant we are actually creatures of it, and can find connection to the Universe and to Nature’s rhythms, and healing, through simple activities, provided we’re out there, and in it.

It’s a theme that resonates with The Cart Shed’s philosophy: transforming lives by engaging people with mental health issues through coppicing and green wood craft in a woodland setting, and profits from the exhibition will be used support The Cart Shed’s work, with the sculpture show acting as a platform to highlight how effective this therapeutic activity is. “The Cart Shed works, because when you are outside in a non-threatening environment, you heal.”

While Out of Nature both celebrates nature and supports the Chart Shed, it is also one of the most ambitious sculpture shows to be mounted in the country, in terms of scale, quality and creativity.

“We invited nearly all the same artists as last time and all the local artists we knew,” says Jenny. “We trawled the net at the end of last year and looked at lots of different shows before picking out the sculptors we particularly liked and invited them.”

Among the high profile artists exhibiting are Devon-based Heather Jansch with her spirited life size Arab horses cast in bronze from drift wood; local sculptor Sally Matthews whose life-size hound stands sentry at the top of a flight of stone steps; artist in residence Rolf Hook from Germany has uncovered some interesting shapes from huge pieces of yew that may be over 1000 years old; Paul Caton (Herefordshire) is busy carving an abstract shape from a huge piece of oak from Newport House, and Ant Beetlestone (Forest of Dean) will see what animal he can find in a large piece of wellingtonia (he carved very life-like bears two years ago).

Jean-Patrice Oulmont will drive up from the Pyrenees again to show more of the powerful bronze casts of carved wood that were so well received two years ago; Jon Edgar will throw the clay portrait of a local “guardian of the soil” as well as carve a large piece of lime from Newport House during his 10 day residence in early October.

Powys-based sculptor/explorer/tree surgeon Glenn Morris exhibits his tribute to the High Brown Fritillary, a butterfly that is threatened with extinction - Glenn will share his experience of climate change and how he reacts to it in his sculpture during a talk on the Arctic on Saturday and local land artist Kate Raggett will finish installing a piece in situ the first day of the show .

Out of Nature opens at 1pm on Saturday, October 3, with a ticketed (£10) launch event. The exhibition will then be open daily until October 25, from 10.30am to 5.30pm. Entrance, £5, children free.

On Sunday, there will be a special H.Energy fun day, with green wood work with Cart Shed leaders and carving by resident sculptor Jon Edgar. The day also offers nature activities for children and the chance to be creative with recycled materials. Visit outofnature.org.uk for details of all talks and workshops during the exhibition's run.