Without a doubt the strangest of Mike Winstone's four sculptures at Grizedale, 'Piscatorial Flora' was a large flower sitting at the beginning of the Ridding Wood trail, with a giant fishbone sprouting from the side of it. Mercedes Bermudez, studio manager for Michael Winstone, offers further insight:

​

"The biological cycle of multicellular organisms. Plants and aquatic craniate animals that over millions of years have helped to shape Grizedale and the place where this sculpture stood. Michael took a fallen tree whose natural structure was the foundation for this sequence of events. A free-flowing web of what has stood at the place over time."

​

'Piscatorial Flora' stood at the beginning of the Ridding Wood until the mid-2000s, or thereabouts, and was Winstone's final piece at Grizedale. He was a regular and important contributor down the years, and in 'A Sense Of Place', just after he had finished his first residency, he explained his ethos and working approach to sculpture:

​

"Many sculptures placed or built in public places seem to fall into three categories. Firstly they may be historical relating to some past event no longer pertinent to the public or its immediate environment. Secondly they are emblems or badges for the cities or parks. Consequently they may have a one-dimensional relationship with the public and environment. Thirdly they are 'ideal' sculptures made for some non-existent utopia, whether it be sculpture about sculpture (which is shoving itself up its own arse) or political. Sculptures of this nature also have a limited one-dimensional relationship with the public and environment.

This leaves a small area of public sculpture which I am interested in. A sculpture which is not limiting, 'ideal', or just dumping the sculptor's badge on the community, but an intimate relationship between the sculptor, the community and the environment. A sculpture which does not increase the alienation between art and the public, but creates as many paradoxes and dimensions as possible within the context of the work. The work should be of its time and place. It should talk to the people because the problems it deals with are the very same ones that the people deal with and see every day."

​

Also by this artist:

Midnight Feast 1984

Waiting For Lunch 1984

To Fuel A Dream 1989