AS a Chinook helicopter flies overhead, the coincidence is too much for Ryedale artist and film-maker, Martin Wood.

“I knew this feature was meant to be, I’ve only seen two Chinooks all year and then one flies overhead just as we speak,” he marvelled.

This isn’t just a random thought – illustrations of Chinooks feature heavily in Martin’s North Yorkshire-based graphic novel, Grand Scheme of Things, which was showcased at last week’s Coastival festival in Scarborough.

Martin says he lives his life by the cycle of solar festivals, a nature-based spirituality that influences his projects.

“Celebrating and promoting solar festivals is at at the heart of my work,” he said.

“Grand Scheme of Things is an audio visual experience inspired by a nature-based spirituality that involves celebrating the eight solar festivals and lunar calendar.”

Martin, who lives in Kirkbymoorside, came up with the idea 15 years ago, when he became interested in solar festivals.

“It’s taken a lot of work, but I wanted to have something solid, with a proper script and album,” he said.

The idea was originally for a film, but developed into a graphic novel as a way of garnering interest.

“I’d never thought about doing it that way, but we’ve had a lot of interest since creating the graphic novel,” said Martin.

Grand Scheme of Things is described as a blackly comic sci-fi odyssey set in Yorkshire in the not-so-distant future, where genetic crop experiments have backfired and the people and landscape of North Yorkshire are bizarrely mutated.

Science and technology alone are not enough to restore the balance of nature, so over the course of eight solar festivals, a motley crew of local characters band together to save their planet.

Martin, who is originally from Malton, went to art college in York and Scarborough and then worked in London promoting clubs and theatre for many years. But yearned to return to the countryside and his Ryedale roots, and moved back here 10 years ago.

He is greatly influenced by the world around him and many of the scenes are set locally and involve Martin’s photography, which he then works on with concept artists to design characters and scenes and scriptwriters to develop the dialogue.

“I go to Farndale quite a lot and take photos, then write scenes which would fit with them,” said Martin.

“When I visited Black Nab at Saltwick, it was already like a film set, it just needed the characters. Some of my favourite work recently has been from our Hunters Moon episode of Grand Scheme of Things, like the concept art I did with John Noble, a brilliant concept artist and film-maker friend from Middlesbrough.”

Martin says that there is a growing collective of creative people, including artists and musicians, based in Ryedale, some of whom have been instrumental in the development of Grand Scheme of Things. These include Farndale artist Maria Silmon, who has contributed to several of the scenes. Meanwhile, scriptwriter Kate Pengelly wrote Hunters Moon while on holiday in Whitby.

Visiting the website is like a journey through a 21st century Marvel comic. The story weaves its way through moor and coast, featuring unusual characters set against familiar backdrops which have, in some cases, taken on new elements. It’s exciting, visually enthralling and illustrates Martin’s message about the cycle of solar festivals and effects on the planet in a fun way.

“I wanted it to be like Star Wars, using CGI, but it’s so expensive, so we did our Yorkshire version as a graphic novel and sent it to America where we’ve had lots of interest – they like the unintentional Yorkshire humour,” he laughed.

“Star Wars is such a huge influence for me, it describes an invisible spiritual force that permeates the universe in an entertaining way, which is what I’ve tried to do to with the eight solar festivals through Grand Scheme of Things – seasons, the importance of nature, it all integrates into the film.

“George Lucas had an advisor in mythology and spirituality when writing Star Wars, and I have an advisor, Peter Dawkins, who is an expert on solar festivals. It’s not just daft science fiction for the sake of it – there are actually some interesting truths presented in a fun, not heavy, way. It all came together and just felt right”

Grand Scheme of Things was launched at Appleton-le-Moors cinema, as Martin loved the venue, surrounded by sheep and moors, the absolute opposite of Leicester Square. There was a DJ, red carpet and 30 guests, a six-foot cardboard cut-out of Jonny Fox, one of the main characters.

And just last week, extracts of Grand Scheme of Things were played in a major event in the Grand Hotel, Scarborough, during the three-day Coastival festival.

“We chose the Grand Hotel because when it was originally constructed in 1863, its design was based on the concept of ‘time’ – four towers to represent the four seasons, 12 floors for each month, 52 chimneys for the weeks and 365 bedrooms for the days of the year – it couldn’t have been more perfect,” said Martin.

Grand Scheme of Things has been an all-consuming project for Martin and the team which has contributed to this epic tale and now they are looking to tour it at some of the summer festivals and in art galleries and cinemas.

“At last we’re starting to get some great feedback and things are starting to shift in Yorkshire.

“The celebration of solar festivals has gathered popularity in London, Glastonbury and Brighton, yet we have really spectacular nature here, it really clears away the cobwebs,” said Martin.

To see Grand Scheme of Things, visit www.grandschemeofthings.co.uk