Sold at Auction: Ben Barrell

My fascination with creating shapes began in childhood. I was lucky enough to join a Saturday morning art club where I was able to create plaster and concrete casts. My first major project was creating a scale model of the farm I lived on in North Cornwall. Playtime was always an outside affair for me, either on the farm or along the beautiful coast that lay beneath it. This triggered my intrigue with the Ocean and the stunning, rugged Cornish landscape.

Later on, I became immersed in sailing and surfing. I would watch the shapes thrown by the Atlantic Ocean as waves rolled up, sea creatures cut through its waters and yachts sailed elegantly across its horizon. My visual memories and sketches of these dynamic shapes translated into the physical forms I created back then and continue to make now. I studied sculpture at Bristol Polytechnic in the early nineties and have been creating sculpture ever since.