Half a lifetime carving letters in stone. In December 1995 I set up a small workshop in a craft centre in Leicestershire having left art college earlier that year. My intention was to sell small sculptures from this workshop to the general public. Very quickly it became apparent that this was going be extremely difficult. [...]
10 years of sculptures at the National Memorial Arboretum. In 2011, I was approached by a lovely elderly gentleman called Harry Parkes. He asked if I would be prepared to make a memorial to the Bevin Boy miners which would be sited at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Harry had been a former Bevin [...]
Bevin Boy Mining Memorial It was during a visit to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield last week that I came across Henry Moore's excellent drawing of Bevin Boy miners. It put me in mind of the mining memorial that I created for the Bevin Boys, sited at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire back in [...]
Sculptures settling into their surroundings at the National Memorial Arboretum I dropped in to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire a couple of weeks ago and was delighted to see how the memorial sculptures that I have installed there over the last 4 years or so have settled in. The memorial for the Bevin Boy [...]
Memorial short-listed for public sculpture award I am delighted to announce that "The Naval Service Memorial" that I designed, located at the National Memorial Arboretum, has been short-listed for the PMSA Marsh Award for excellence in Public Sculpture. I was extremely honoured to have been selected to create the Naval Service Memorial and was pleased [...]
In 2011, a gentleman called Harry Parkes arrived at my workshop with a sketch of a memorial that he had in mind to commemorate the Bevin Boys that he wanted to erect at the National Memorial Arboretum. Harry explained that the Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work down the coal mines during [...]
"Mytilus Edilus", the mussel sculpture that I carved in 2007 for Conwy Quayside in North Wales continues to make impromptu television cameos. Last week I spotted it on Terry and Masons Great Food Trip as the 2 peckish hosts made their way around the ancient Welsh town. Previously the 3 metre tall Kilkenny Limestone artwork [...]
The Naval Service Memorial was dedicated yesterday by Prince Michael of Kent in front of around 2500 people at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. It was a fantastic occasion that was marked by a fly past, a band, over 100 standards and 1500 veterans. It is the culmination of over a year of hard [...]
The Bevin Boys were finally given the recognition they deserve today when the memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire was unveild today by HRH the Countess Of Wessex. The event was attended by dozens of Bevin Boys from all over the Country while the National Press were out in big numbers to mark [...]
Last week the sculpture that I have been working on with Cornish Artist Peter Fluck was unveiled in a private garden in Leicestershire. Peter constructed the mesmeric mobile which was attached to the triangular Kilkenny Limestone base that I carved. The base contains an inscription, a short poem, which spairals around the stone. Peter and [...]
