a sculptor
Some of us are born here, brought up here, schooled here and then we move away from here for one reason or another, but we’ll always return. That’s the case with Aidan and his love of this lovely land that we all call home.
Aidan is Cornish through and through, even though a Cornish accent seemed to escape him somewhat when we first met. He was brought up on his families farm out Sennen way where he lived most of his younger life . Helping out here and there on the farm was about as much as Aidan’s involvement was with regards to a working farm life, and farming had no real bearing as to what he chose to do, once the time came for him to leave Cornwall.
His love of drawing and family unit of creatives that surrounded Aidan fuelled an interest in architecture so he left the South West and headed North. Aidan told me “Initially I studied architecture at Dundee, but then changed to study 3D Design in Leicester” . Once he’d finished his studies, he spent some time thereafter travelling around the world before deciding to return home to the farm. At that point he made the decision to take up farming himself, following on with the family tradition.
I think lots of people are inspired to make similar forms without understanding where they come from. I just try and do what I like…
So how did Aidan get into sculpting then? Well, to start with, he went on a brief weekend taster course run by a stonemason from Lincoln Cathedral which he found fascinating and gave him the basic rudiments of actually preparing a stone, and how he should go about carving a curve or a sphere or even a perfect right angle with very basic tools. Aidan - “I think I was always feeling my way towards a 3D outlet in some way. It felt very much like ‘drawing’ only in three dimensions”.
He’s been sculpturing now for about 6/7 years and he’s based down on his family farm in his studio that was once the old farmhouse. Aidans choice of materials, Cornish granite of course. Granite that he’s dug up on the farm. I’m told its Lands End granite which is somewhat different to our other local granite. He’s now a Member of the Penwith Society in St Ives, which also allows him to submit his work into exhibitions there and perhaps sell on too. Farming life and work continues for Aidan inbetween the sculpting of course.
The day I shot Aidan, in a film type way of course, it was dusty, urban, a little more dust and very interesting from the point that I’d never seen a sculptor at work before. Its pain staking work, very slow but very rewarding, looking at his work. Thank you for your time Aidan. RD
