20 September 2022
From solicitor to sculpture: You have to take risks says Simon Gudgeon
5 minutes
Simon Gudgeon lost everything in the 1991 recession but, 30 years on, his monumental sculptures feature in important private collections including The Prince and Princess of Wales. From his 26-acre ‘Sculpture by the Lakes’ landscape he tells Private Clients director Julie Webb how taking risks has shaped his life.
I am not very social. In fact, my studio is very anti-social – the door is shut as I don’t like working with other people around when I am getting into the zone!
My inspiration comes from all over; an idea starts in my mind and is formed and reformed –sometimes in an hour, a day, weeks or years. I never put down anything on paper, I always keep an idea in my head.
 |
The physical side of making a sculpture often takes nowhere near as long as the idea that is forming. ‘Serenity’, my bronze work in Hyde Park, on the south side of the Serpentine near the Diana Memorial Fountain, took six years of refinement, starting as an abstract bird form. When the commission came through I was asked what I would suggest, and it was this piece. |
|
Probably an artist’s best work is something that takes time to develop but my work ‘Search for Enlightenment’ came together very quickly. I was on holiday with friends in the Karoo Desert, in South Africa, and we went to the mountain for sundowners and watched the stars. Everyone was looking up – I saw their faces and captured that moment. Travel really is the best for inspiration. |
|
 |
I also like to be close to nature and my figurative sculpture ‘Leaf Spirit’, which is installed in Kew Gardens, came from imprints of leaves found at ‘Sculpture by the Lakes’, here in the Dorset countryside. I hope it evokes a sense of calm. I continually crave calmness, and the search for peace and tranquillity. I am now fortunate to have 26 acres to lose myself in and the perfect setting to display my work. It also means I can choose what I want to create and I don’t have to stay with figurative, abstract or wildlife themes. At the moment I am working on a kinetic sculpture. It is an engineering nightmare, so I am taking a risk. You have got to take risks – although I do maintain that the harder you work the luckier you get. If you are positive and optimistic things will work out – if you are pessimistic, you set yourself up to fail. |
|
I didn’t start sculpting until I was 40 (I am now 63). I qualified as a solicitor in the 1970s and the day I finished my articles I knew it was not the career for me. I had been brought up on a remote farm in Yorkshire and just went to university for the social life. My brother was studying medicine so I wanted to do something on a par and just kept going down that path until I decided to change direction. I have been self-employed ever since I gave up my legal career. I did a bit of photography and looked after gardens until a property developer asked me to landscape a garden. I designed the garden and started a landscape business alongside a mini garden centre in Southfields, south-west London. It was all going well until the 1991 recession, when my seven percent mortgage went up to 15 percent. I lost my business, my home and my car. It was, actually, tremendously liberating as I no longer had any commitments or responsibility. I was in my mid 30s and started to sell insurance to make some money until my mother bought me some paints and that was it, I thought I would become an artist and supplemented my income by house-sitting, so my accommodation and food was covered. Five years on, I tried my hand at sculpture after an impulse buy of some artist’s clay. That’s how it all started and I have been self-employed ever since. Now most of my work is cast in bronze, using two of the best UK foundries. I create two or three monumental sculptures a year – I don’t take commissions because clients usually want to place a sculpture quickly, so I create what is in my mind and hope visitors to ‘Sculpture by the Lakes’ love what they see. |
 |
|
Most of my clients have busy lives, so in most cases I will go along to their property to see where they want to install their sculpture or advise on a position because sometimes a client just falls in love with a piece and then needs to find somewhere to place it. I have the experience to know what will work in a certain setting and an expert team to install these large outdoor works. |
My wife, Monique, and I now have five businesses to run at ‘Sculpture by the Lakes’ – a café, a restaurant which features events with a chef’s six-course tasting menu for 40-100 people, a gallery, a delicatessen and my studio. I am ok with the socialising and entertaining at the bigger events as long I can be occupied by helping with the cooking or the barbecue! |
So that’s where we are at the moment. I find the best thing in life is not to have a plan. I have never had a plan and here, in Dorset, this place almost tells us what we should do next.
 |
(Image: 19 February 2018 - Sculptor Simon Gudgeon in the gardens at Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset. ©Laura Jane Dale 2018 +44 (0) 7917152382 www.laurajanedale.com laurajanedale@googlemail.com) Sculpture by the Lakes is in Dorchester, Dorset. Visit sculpturebythelakes.co.uk to book a visit or a private viewing with Simon. |
Insuring your sculpture
Whether you have had a sculpture in your garden for decades or have acquired a new piece, it is important to look after it and insure it correctly. Some policies may exclude outdoor sculptures or limit the amount payable in the event of a claim – so before you invest in a sculpture, check your policy wording.
Specialist items such as statues, sculptures and other garden items, particularly if they are of high value, should be treated as fine art and not simply included under the general contents figure.
In most cases, insurers will cover them on an agreed value basis. If you insure on this basis, cover is usually ‘all risks’.
Above all, from the outset, ensure the sculpture is professionally installed and securely fixed. Depending on value, some insurers may require additional security.
Remember too that in severe winter it is well worth protecting old stone with a cover. If you notice any small damage or hairline cracks, get them repaired so moisture cannot get in during freezing temperatures.
To talk to us about the insurance you have in place for your home or sculpture, please call 020 8256 4901.