From Solicitor to Sculptor: Simon Gudgeon in Dorset

Ramblings

BBC

Science, Nature, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Simon Gudgeon is one of our leading sculptors, but he didn't practice his art until his mid 40s. He'd worked as a solicitor, a photographer, and a landscape gardener before, one day, picking up a lump of clay to see what he could create. It wasn't long before he knew that sculpting was all he wanted to do. His distinctive creations, often inspired by the natural world, are showcased at his own venture, Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset. Set in 26 acres and featuring over 40 lake and riverside works of art, establishing Sculpture by the Lakes proved a financially risky labour of love. Simon tells his story to Clare Balding on a walk from the historic St. Nicholas Church in Moreton, to his home at the sculpture park in Pallington, Dorset.

Grid Ref for St. Nicholas Church: SY805892 Grid Ref for Sculpture by the Lakes: SY786912

Producer: Karen gregor

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Eleven climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2.
0:06.0	It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history.
0:10.0	Rock falls, avalanches.
0:11.0	Huge pieces of ice. All are big enough to kill you.
0:14.0	He just flew out into Devoid and he was gone.
0:17.0	How did it all go so wrong?
0:19.0	And is it really worth risking death to feel alive? Why would
0:23.2	somebody pay to go to a place called the death cell on a vacation? Extreme, peak danger. With me,
0:29.9	Natalia Melman Petrazella. Listen to the full series now. First on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:41.3	Earlier this morning, I was worried that a thick pea super of a fog would never lift,
0:46.4	but like a miracle, the sun burns through.
0:49.8	And instead, we've now got the most glorious winter's day.
0:53.1	It's clear, it's's crisp the frost on the field
0:56.1	beyond the graveyard where i'm standing is glistening in that sun and there's such a beautiful quality
1:01.7	to the light it's an artist's dream and maybe it's apt that i am meeting a sculptor we're going to
1:07.8	walk indoors it towards the sculpture park that he and his wife created.
1:12.1	It's called sculpture by the lakes.
1:14.2	Simon Gudgeon is his name.
1:15.6	We are meeting in the graveyard of the church at Morton.
1:19.3	So if you want to follow us on the map, we are on Ordnance Survey Explorer.
1:23.4	OL15. It's Perbeck and South Dorset.
1:26.0	And the grid reference for the church is S.Y. 806-891.
	...

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