‘Art that people can respond to’– Pallington Lakes

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A new sculpture park forms a permanent open air 'gallery' for a British sculptor’s work

Simon Gudgeon is a leading British sculptor, and owner of Pallington Lakes Sculpture Park in Dorset. Sculpture by the Lakes (2012), introduces his sculpture and his wildlife park to a wider audience. The book focuses on his initial plan for the park and its progression since 2007.  His sculptures, in bronze, glass, and stainless steel, situated in the Park’s landscape setting, are the visual ingredients.

At the end of 2007 the artist and his wife Monique purchased Pallington Lakes, in Dorset. It was a fishery farm business with acres of land. They brought with them two of the artist’s large sculptures and decided to place them outdoors at the lakes’ edge. Increased space meant a larger studio and ability to create larger-scale works. As the number of works grew Simon and his wife decided to create a sculpture park at Pallington Lakes, now listed as one of the most beautiful in England. The book takes the reader from Gudgeon’s first thoughts for the park through to the attraction it is today with stunning photographs of his sculptures, the wildlife and planting. It is a personal story of the Park’s development and from it one gets an understanding of the sculptor’s viewpoint of why he undertook the project, ‘we had the space and landscape to complement the sculptures and partly through disappointment at how large [monumental] sculptures look in galleries.’

Gudgeon’s work can be seen in many global locations. One such is Isis, in bronze (a limited edition of nine), at over 10 feet (3 metres) tall, weighing three-quarters of a ton and visible from a third of a mile away. Its form is based on an ibis, a wading bird with a long and thin downward curving beak. Isis in Hyde Park, London, is placed at the edge of the Serpentine lake. It was the first piece of public sculpture to be placed in this park for over 50 years and has formed part of a campaign to raise £2 million to build the Look Out Education Centre in the park.

Since 2012 Isis can also be found on the Sculpture Trail in the National Museum of Wildlife Art of America, in Jackson, Wyoming. Gudgeon was the only British artist to be commissioned to take part in this open-air ‘gallery’ of over 30 works. Photographs of it within this vast landscape and the background to Gudgeon’s commission are included in the book. Search for Enlightenment, a bronze limited-edition pair of male and female monumental heads, can be seen in London overlooking Carriageway Drive and Hyde Park and features at Pallington Lakes too. The book’s photographs illustrate the works at different times of year, in the depths of winter and summertime, showing how much the seasons alter one’s vision of outdoor sculptures.

Gudgeon’s wildlife series include cranes, swans, pelicans and leaping salmon on, in and around water; and ravens, falcons, pheasants and barn owls, and life-size roe deer on land. There is focus, too, on his monumental minimalist abstract sculptures. Simon Gudgeon comments that he does not want to be compartmentalized as a ‘wildlife sculptor’ or abstract artist or figurative artist but to ‘look at new subjects and new techniques and create art that people respond to’.

On reading Sculpture by the Lakes the immediate response is to want to visit Pallington Lakes to see Gudgeon’s sculptures of wildlife alongside their real-life counterparts, in and on the lakes and through the park. His years of sculpture creation and landscaping have produced a remarkable wildlife sanctuary and a unique backdrop for the display his work. The book’s superb photography by Richard Budd, Rolant Dafis and Alfie Hunter, Simon Gudgeon and David Oldridge has captured a taster of walking through this particularly beautiful landscape.