Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

I MUST admit that until very recently the phrase "environmental art" set alarm bells ringing in my head.

I had seen lots of artists working in our woods and producing objects which seemed to intrude into the beauty of the countryside rather than enhance it.

On the whole, the best environmental artist of them all is Mother Nature.

It seems, however, that some artists are now working with the countryside and not against it.

I have no argument with artists whose work you can identify.

I was shown an excellent example near the centre of Manchester last week.

It consisted of a seat carved to resemble the winged fruit of a sycamore.

I was told that local schoolchildren loved it and one group was trying to design a picnic table to look like the open flower of a daisy.

The pupils were fascinated to discover how intricate and beautiful the flower was.

To me this is environmental art at its very best and the youngsters are bound to benefit from this approach.

I would love to see some schools building up their own woodland sculpture.

This is a real portrait of nature.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.