In his personal sculpture garden, Australian artist Bruno Torfs crafts wooden figures that live in the forest. Embracing fantasy, his life-sized works feature delightfully unusual characters. We see things like a bearded wizard carrying an armful of tiny creatures and a young princess riding a unicorn. Torfs incorporates the natural landscape into his art, using tree branches and leaves as a part of his subjects’ hair or body. After carving, they remain unpainted and blend in with their surroundings.
We might describe someone as wooden when they lack emotion, but Torfs proves that wood can convey an incredible range of feelings. He communicates love, joy, and sadness through tiny details like the angle of a shoulder or subtle shape of an eye. These figures mirror difficult emotions we face, and his work is a symbol of compassion and a source of comfort to those who use nature walks for reflection.
Torfs’ travels inspired his sculptures. At the beginning of his career, he would return from a trip and sketch and paint the people he met. His work became so popular that he and his family moved from Europe to Australia to open Bruno’s Art and Sculpture Garden, where it is on permanent display. Now, visitors from around the world can walk through the rainforest and experience the handcrafted magic.
Bruno’s Art and Sculpture Garden website
via [Vielleicht and Sculptures of the Blue Planet]