By KATH GANNAWAY
GROWING up on a farm, Robby Bast was not unfamiliar with a chainsaw – for cutting wood.
But, on Saturday 17 January, the Seville sculptor pushed the boundaries of both the tool and his own skill and creativity to take out the 2015 Australian Chainsaw Carving Championship with an astounding sculpture of a dragonfly.
Robby and fellow sculptor Leigh Conckie from Eltham introduced the championships last year and in their second year the five-day championships held at SkyHigh on Mount Dandenong, it attracted carvers from Japan, Canada, the USA and the United Kingdom as well as from Australia.
Robby said he started carving in 2003 as a hobby after seeing a demonstration at the Elmore Field Days.
“It really appealed to me. I’d used a chainsaw to saw firewood, but that was my only use of it.
“There is a bit of a creative bent in the family; my dad who was a commercial artist and my grandfather did oil paintings and I suppose that artistic process is there in the carving,” he said.
Honing his skills through the local network of carvers, and the internet, Robby took on wood carving as a full-time job in 2009 and hasn’t looked back.
Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have admired and enjoyed his sculptures at Healesville Sanctuary.
He is currently working on his 12th commission for the Sanctuary, a four-metre sculpture of a long-finned eel.
Carving a career out of a hobby he loves has more than financial rewards according to Robby.
“I was taking some of the international carvers through the Sanctuary during the championships and we were seeing kids interacting with the sculptures, crawling over them and really having fun,” he said.
“As an artist, that gives you a real boost.”
Creating a design for the championships comes down to delivering something that will wow the judges, and meet the strict judging criteria, including artistic merit, precision of cut, difficulty of cut, the overall finish and whether it tells a story.
The dragonfly design involved dissecting a log into component parts, carving, then reassembling the insect.
It undoubtedly ‘wowed’ the three judges … and the managing director of Stihl Chainsaws.
The company, which sponsors the championship, purchased the winning sculpture for their Knoxfield showroom.
Lee Gouch, Brand Activations Manager with Stihl, said to see how a large log of wood could be transformed into such a spectacular sculpture was amazing.
“The way that Robby deconstructed the log and the way he can visualise each component from within just a standard log is quite magnificent.
“To understand how each component will fit together and make sure he has enough wood to do that is why he is a winner,” he said.
Robby said the Australian carving community was small compared with the USA and Canada.
They are however enthusiastic for other people to get involved and his advice to anyone interested, is “Just have a go”.
“Find a chainsaw carver, ask a few questions and get out there and try it,” he said.
