Fierce ‘Pegasus’ made in Cebu

A three-meter high winged horse sculpture on display at the SM Seaside City Mall. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Pegasus , the winged horse of Greek mythology, is young, bold and fierce in a a deadwood sculpture  that draws  awed stares in the driveway of SM Seaside City’s Mountain Wing entrance.

The stallion, which looks like it is about to take flight weighs five tons and   is a “labor of love”, said international renowed sculptor James Doran Webb, who has made Mandaue City his home and workshop for many years since he first came to Cebu in 1989.

If you’ve seen Pegasus, count yourself lucky.  The sculpture was only   on loan to  SM and due to be  shipped out to the United States by end of December since it is a commissioned work by one of his long time clients Derek and Mary Ann Aboitiz Arculi.

The sculpture quickly became a magnet for “selfies” and souvenir photos of shoppers after it was installed just before the mall opened in November.

The grain of the wood and arrangement of the pieces show the creature’s muscles, prompting some spectators to reach out and touch the piece as if it was alive.

“Every piece is special and different,” Webb said  of the composition he said  took 4,000 hours to put together like a jigsaw puzzle.

It is  made up of 520 kilos of stainless steel, 1,800 screws, 460 bolts and 380 kilos of aged  wood gathered from different parts of Cebu and nearby islands as drift wood, parts of old houses or  fallen trees

“Each scultpure  has its own character from the way they stand, their eyes, the opening of the mouth, the nostrils.”

“He is fairly strong, young but very knowledgeable. His structure shows that he is half-thoroughbred and half-workhorse. He signifies a fresh start with wings spreading out ready to launch and take off,” said Webb, describing his work.

Webb said he and his team  started working on the Pegasus in April 2015.

Every year Webb makes 12 to 14 deadwood sculptures which he displays at The Chelsea Flower Show in London.

This means that spectators  abroad get more of an opportunity to view them, making public exhibits in Cebu, no matter how brief, like one horse shown in the recent Mandaue Expo (brought to

Manila for the APEC special exhibit) and another in the departure area of the Mactan International Airport during the start of the Year of the Horse,  rare.

Webb said every piece starts with a concept which he then sketches.

Unlike a typical artist who sketches and draws using a pencil and a paper, Webb uses his iPad.

British sculptor James Doran Webb created Pegasus, a three-high winged horse sculpture on display at the SM Seaside City Mall along with his book ‘Animalier’ and a monkey sculpture.(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

“I am a lazy sketcher preferring my iPad to the more technically demanding pencil and paper,” Webb wrote in his book  ‘Animalier’.

Webb then makes a maquette, a small preliminary version of the final product.

If he finds it satisfactory, he then starts work on the armature made of high quality stainless steel that acts as the sculpture’s backbone.

“I start by attaching larger pieces of wood into the armature using heavy bolts. The larger pieces will then become a sturdy base for the smaller pieces of wood that I attach using screws.”

Webb has a team of six  local workers who work with him on the wood,  two welders, and  two people for the stonework.

The deadwood he uses can withstand decades of exposure and are dense and oily with exceptional water-resistant qualities.

Webb’s personal advocacy is to  plant and nurture 80,000 endemic hardwood trees in Cebu.

“We started planting about 9,000 seedlings in 2013 before Supertyphoon Yolanda. Sadly, the mortality rate was about 60 percent when we went back to visit the saplings in Oslob,” he said.

While he committed to finance the project using his private funds, Webb said he thought of writing a book to better illustrate his passion for the hardwood craft.

The first edition of “Animalier” was published in August this year with a second edition due for release this month.

“The book features 80 images of my works shot by wedding photographer Rolando Pascua. We are selling the book for P1,500 which can finance 10 more seedlings to be planted and nurtured in Oslob and Carmen,” he said.

Webb  asked for help from locals in the area to nurture the seedlings and paid them P1 for every seedling every month.

“This year we planted another 9,000 seedlings of hardwood trees like Mahogany. We hope that through our engaging the locals, we can lower the mortality rate,” he said.

The book is on display in SM Seaside City with a sculpture of a “happy monkey”, part of a commissioned work in Singapore for the Year of the Monkey. One can buy a copy and be part of the advocacy.

Webb first came to the country as a teenager to help a friend set up a jewelry workshop.

He came to Cebu in 1989 at the age of 20 and has since built a workshop in Paknaan, Mandaue City.

He said his passion for drift or deadwood craft started 15 years ago during a holiday in Catanduanes where he spent most of his vacation strolling along the beach and kayaking in the waters.

His first piece was a small horse which he gave to his mother and is now stored in their home in England.

“It was a horse which I sold for P15,000 to an English friend of mine,” Webb said.

His sculptures became known around the world especially in England after he joined The Chelsea Flower Show in London back in 2012 where he displayed some of his works and won many clients.

Webb now has constant followers in England, the US and Singapore where his works like the Goats of the New Year are on display at The Gardens by the Bay.

“We are now also doing the Seven Monkeys which will be displayed at The Gardens by the Bay since it’s the Year of the Monkey next year,” he said.

Webb said he always had a soft spot for animals and he loves how to recreate a specific character with every piece he makes.

“Each finished sculpture represents a little part of myself. I feel a certain empathy for animals and find it difficult to believe that they don’t have souls and they don’t feel like we do,” Webb said.