Ben Barrell

Ben Barrell About Combines the art of sculpture with the skill of furniture making to create sculptural seating. Fluid, naturally elegant shapes inspired by the landscape of the Cornish Coast and the rhythms of the sea. "The bench looks better every day. I sit on it every morning and I am astonished that I am actually sitting on a work of art." Melvyn Bragg. Ben also creates large scale outdoor sculptures which echo the dynamic movements of nature. Public and private commissions.

Exhibition History 2008 - Gallery Pelar and Sculpture Garden 2007 - Delamore Arts, The Sculpture Show, Barabed Gallery, Barnes, Harvey Wells, Cornish Mining Heritage, Brewhouse Gallery 2006 - Hidden Art 2006 - Treliske, Falmouth Festival of Literature and Arts 2006 - Summer Exhibition at Druidstone House 2005 - Peters Barn Gallery 2004 - The Garden Gallery 2002 - Hannah Pechar Sculpture Garden 2001 - Affordable Art Fair Permanent collection of Sausmarez Manor ArtParks 2000 - Art of Living 1998 - Parkside Business Centre 1997 - Society Art of Living, Concrete Societies AGM, Horizons, Combinations, Degree Show

Biography / CV I have been making concrete and plaster casts since I was eight, when I joined a Saturday morning art club. My first major project was making a concrete and stone scale model of the farm I grew up on. I scoured the farm for materials I could use to make everything from the milking parlour to a barn for my fantasy collection of Britains Toys tractors, like the one below. The farm lay along some of the most beautiful coast in North Cornwall. As a boy in farmers’ black wellies, I used to gaze out to sea and wonder what it would be like to be on a yacht looking back at the land that I knew so well. Although I spent much of my spare time surfing and playing in the sea, I never thought I would be part of the yellow welly sailing brigade. Little did I know that when I was 18 my parents would sell the farm and swap farming for sailing. I soon became immersed in this new world and became fascinated and inspired by the contrasts and similarities between seascapes and landscape. I soon began to recognise that that the movements, rhythms and forces of the sea and land echo each other: the sound of a silent steam plough turning the earth is almost identical to that of a yacht cutting through the water. I like to think there is a tension in my work that might describe some of these forces. In the early nineties I studied sculpture at what was then Bristol Polytechnic. It was there that I started to experiment with the large-scale concrete casting of free forms based on the movements of crafts and creatures on the sea. It was my degree show sculpture, Calm to Storm, and most notably people’s reaction to it, that made me want to play with the relationship between sculpture and furniture. Which is what I have been doing ever since.

Acquisitions / Collections Commissions 2009 - Cancer Research UK Show Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2008 - Wimpey Homes 2005 - Blue Glass Bench for Kim Wilkie Associates 2004 - BBC Show Garden Hampton Court - Seating for 33 people 1999 - Court Flower Show 1997 - National Cycle Path Memorial Bird Bath

Public Works 2009 - Current commission for NHS Hospital 2009 - Havant Arts Centre 2008 - Cambridge University 2006 - Havant Arts Centre

Qualifications / Education Budehavern Comprehensive School 1982 - 89 - BA Hons Fine Art - University of the West of England

Price Range of Work From £3600 to £4400.

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Listing of artist's works of art Crescent Bench Sculptor: Ben Barrell Size:160 cm Medium: resin marble and stainless steel Edition: 1/1 Price: £3600 Sculpture for Sale Logan Bench Sculptor: Ben Barrell Size:185 cm Medium: resin marble Edition: 1/1 Price: £4400 Sculpture for Sale