Olympic Gallery: Click here for the finished Olympic Sculpture Gallery

Avenue of Champions / Modern day heroes

Ben with (from left)...Mark Foster, Leon Taylor, Ade Adepitan MBE and Steve Williams OBE at the opening launch of Ben's 2009 show at the Belgravia Gallery, London UK.

My work here is an exploration into the world of our current top Olympic and Paralympics athletes. The desire is to create a series of sculptures which will honor their achievements and reflect their commitment and excellence within their sport. The sculptures will aim to hold a part of the key to the athletes’ power zone: which I see as pivotal to them being the best in the world at what they do. Each work is a collaboration with the athlete to gain an understanding of their body's action and to capture the 'moment' in a fragmented form. They are today's 'Modern Day Heroes'.

I believe we are on the cusp of seeing a return to the real in sculpture, a 21st century renaissance of truth and beauty in human form. There seems to be a hunger for more skills based art and I am following the tradition of carving in pure statuary marble and casting in the classic 'gun metal' bronze to create these works.

The picture gallery holds images of my casting sessions with:

Christine Ohuruogu MBE Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion

Debbie Flood, Olympic 2004/08 Silver Medalist Rowing

Steve Williams OBE, Olympic 2004/08 Gold Medalist Rowing, Leander Rowing Club

Ade Adepitan MBE, Paralympics wheelhair basketball Champion

Mark Foster, 5 times Olympian and too many World titles to mention

Alex O’Connell Olympic Fencing...( You can read Alex's BLOG here )

Louis Smith, Gymnast

Lee Pearson OBE, MBE, Paralympics Dressage, outstanding 9 gold titles

Leon Taylor, Olympic medalist Diving

Matt Price, UK Karate Grand Masters Champion with 13 consecutive titles.

These sculpture works are forming a crucial part of my journey to find a unity of form within the material, balanced with the expression of strength and beauty of the individual athlete. It is a constant inspiration to me personally and I would like to thank everyone who has taken part in this project including my team.

Team BCD: Ellie Sandford-Hawken, Andrew Hayes and Nathan Morris. Also Simon Welstead and Mike Brit for all their help with the bronze casts.

As we head towards the London 2012 Games I look forward to adding more beautiful bodies to this series. I truly feel we are blessed with the good fortune to be here in this moment to witness these superb athletes achieving their dreams and I wish them all every success in their ventures.