Every year since 2003 the Artweeks committee have honoured the work and commitment to the festival of Mary Moser by presenting an annual award in her name. Lady Moser was one of the Artweeks’ founders. It is thanks to her vision and amazing tenacity that the festival developed and grew into the popular event it is today. The award is given to further the career of the recipient who has taken up their art or craft as a second career.

This year’s Mary Moser Award has been given to woodturner Richard Shock, whose work is being exhibited at the O3 Gallery, throughout Artweeks, as well as at his home, 369 Woodstock Road, Oxford, from May 8-16 (Site 108) and at Chipping Norton Town Hall from May 25-31 (Site 358) Richard is a chemical engineer who took up woodturning as a hobby at the age of 50, retiring to focus on his woodturning in 2005 when he discovered people wanted to buy and collect his work.

His original intention was to concentrate on making furniture and use the lathe to turn a few chair legs, but it didn’t take him long to realise how satisfying it was to create functional and artistic bowls and plates which are pure art forms.

Richard became a registered Professional Turner in 2007 and also belongs to the Oxfordshire Craft Guild, the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain and the Oxfordshire Woodturners Club.

He uses both British woods and wood from sustainable managed forests around the world. He is thrilled that his pieces often travel the world once they are made, often returning to the place the wood came from.

His favourite woods include English sycamore, with its huge variations, though he is also very fond of eucalyptuses from Australia which respond very well to his touch.

As he doesn’t like wasting wood, nothing is thrown away. Small off-cuts are used to make bottle stoppers and other little items that can be used around the home.

It’s the tactile delight and its glorious high-polished finish that makes his work so special – people long to reach out and touch his pieces as they are so smooth and appealing. They cry out to be used as fruit bowls and platters, though Richard is now focusing his attention on promoting woodturning as an art form.

He says he loves making purely artistic forms that heighten but not overwhelm the background against which they will be placed.