Grass sculptures scorched by heat

The grass sculptures started off like this before the heat struck

Pieces of "living art" included in a festival around a town in north Wales have been scorched in the summer heat.

Kevin Hunt's Grass Sculptures are included in Ruthin Festival of Contemporary Art and Light.

The hot weather this summer means that the grass-covered furniture at Ruthin jail has quickly become weathered.

The graduate's work is among 28 new and established artists showing at the second Ruthin festival, which is distributed around the town.

The 22-year-old who has just graduated from NEWI's North Wales School of Art and Design says he is quite happy with the changing appearance of his grass exhibits.

The pieces of furniture were covered in clay and grass seed and then left to grow outside. But the hot weather and accompany heavy rain made them grow more than expected.

...but are ending up like this in the summer heat

"Obviously because they are alive the sunlight and heat will mean they alter and the extreme conditions recently have meant this process of alteration has been rapid," said Kevin.

"I am not concerned by this, part of the point of the work is to see it change over time, altering itself. It is a process I can't control."

But he admitted: "The general response seems to be that people are very intrigued by them."

Chairman Gavin Harris said the point of the "dispersed gallery" art festival was to introduce visitors to both the town and art.

As well as the grass sculptures, the exhibition also includes a display of brick art at a builders merchants in Ruthin, and a display of human-size hares in velvet dresses in a shop window.

There are also a display by this year's National Eisteddfod fine art winner Peter Finemore at a garden centre, and other exhibits at the local garage, hotel, and castle.

A wall of bricks is another display at the festival

"Part of the idea was to encourage a trail around the art and to discover the town but also to introduce art into day-to-day-life," Kevin said.

"I know exhibits like the grass sculpture and the hares in the shop have certainly made people stand and stare.

One of Kevin's sculptures has been placed inside the old Victorian prison in the 'dark cell,' the cell was used in the past for placing prisoners in solitary confinement and complete darkness.

With no natural sunlight the piece will alter in a different way to those outside.

"It will be interesting to see how the piece will deteriorate by not being able to photosynthesise" Kevin said.

The festival runs until 29 August.