Welcome: Ben Barrell
Ben’s joyous sculptural forms and shapes flow out of his approach to life and the things he sees and experiences around him. He has experienced first-hand the drama of the Atlantic Ocean and the waves that crash against the beach along with the experience of sailing and surfing.
Brought up a farmer’s son on a cliff top above St Gennys, Ben was drenched in an understanding of the ebbs and flows of nature, and the forces that shape and influence it. He is a Cornish sculptor who works surrounded by the extraordinary beauty of the place that has been his home since birth.
Ben takes the essence of a movement and creates a moment of stillness. So, it is fitting that he chooses to work with materials that exist both in liquid and solid form - concrete, resin and bronze.
Ben makes the initial maquettes – the small models that will lead eventually to the finished sculpture – from modelling clay, which softens so that it can be shaped and moulded, or modelling wax which melts down to liquid form and can be used to capture the detail he wants in the finished piece.
Bens models are designed to then be cast into larger park or garden sculptures and indeed much bigger, monumental works.
Bronze in its liquid form can reach into the most detailed mould, by casting in bronze the movement of the initial sketch can then be captured at any scale. Many of the exterior sculptures and sculptural seats combined with scale and detail is brought to life by bronze.
