British sculptor, born in Esher, Surrey. He has lived and worked in Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales, since 1967; initially he moved because of the cost of living in London. In 1969 he bought a disused chapel as a studio and began working with fallen wood from the nearby forest. He works on this before it has been seasoned so that cracks can appear after the sculptor has completed his work. The material is not only carved but chopped and twisted into shape; he has described the cracks as ‘rather like smiles, revealing more about themselves’. In 1977 he planted his Ash Dome, a work which has grown into shape in the years since. In a 1978 interview he said, ‘I'll have to work on the dome four or five times over a period of 40–50 years, but then let it go…My own demise will take care of that.

Text source: A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (Oxford University Press)


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