Simon Keeley regularly takes on commissions as well as producing free-flowing sculptural carving for ecclesiastical, gallery, garden, public art spaces and private individuals – and he teaches the skills he has learnt.

Simon Keeley was just finishing off a pair of wild boar heads in Portland limestone when NSS visited him at his workshop in Surrey. The heads are a private commission to cap gateposts for a customer who wanted boar heads to represent those on his family coat of arms.

Simon drew them first, then made a clay marquette for approval by the client before he started work on the stone he bought from Portland limestone extractor Albion Stone. He bought two blocks, each about a cubic metre (around 2.5tonnes), although it turned out he was able to get both heads from one block.

His client confirmed to Simon that he found him through his website (www.simonkeeley.co.uk). Simon also uses social media  on the internet and says his videos have had 1,400 views. You can find them on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

He has enjoyed carving the boar heads, which he has made realistic after studying photographs and mounted heads in order to reflect the nature of the beasts.

“They’re above spec,” says Simon. “I give my work my all. I put my heart and soul into it. That way everything else looks after itself.”

Around his workshop are sculptures and carvings Simon has produced for competitions and exhibitions, and some experimental pieces like the horse’s head pictured opposite, carved into a boulder of Portland Basebed, leaving part of the stone in its raw state, emphasising both the nature of the stone and the nature of the horse.

Specialist Judge Miriam Rose eloquently summed up Simon’s work when she awarded him a Craft & Design Magazine Gold Award in 2011. She said: “All the finalists show exceptional skill and creativity but for me the work of Simon Keeley takes my breath away.

“He is not just an immensely skilled stone carver, he has exceptional draughtsmanship and the ability to adapt his skills to traditional and contemporary styles of work.

“Perhaps for me, though, it is his desire not just to demonstrate his skills and have his work on view for all to see, but to pass on his skills through teaching at workshops and on courses that stands him out above the other finalists.

“All craft skills used today are based on those used for centuries by generations of master craftsmen and the passing on of these skills to future generations is vital to the survival of the skills and to enable our children and grandchildren to experience the joy that owning – and maybe creating – a skilfully made, beautiful piece of handcrafted work brings to our everyday lives.”

Simon says it was his Masters degree in Art & Architecture at the University of East London that gave him the confidence to start teaching. He now runs his own, mostly weekend courses, which he likes to make fun as well as educational. “There’s always a lot of banter. We have a good laugh. Then you get into carving and when you’re chipping stone you’re in the zone.”

He also teaches at various schools and colleges, both in the UK and overseas. He says: “I must have taught 1,000 people; maybe more.” Four times a year he teaches at West Dean, near Chichester in West Sussex, which is a pinnacle of conservation and restoration study. He describes West Dean as a “slice of heaven”.

Simon moved into stone carving from stonemasonry, which he came to as a mature 32-year-old. Before that he had worked in conservation and restoration in Lincoln after leaving art college.

At the age of 32 he decided he wanted to actually make things with his hands and went to York technical college to study stonemasonry. He liked the idea of stonemasonry because the masons he had met had tended to be free spirits. “Happiness and fulfillment are there in the job,” he says. “For me, it was love at first chip.”

He took the fact that his great grandfather had been a master memorial mason as a sign for him to follow. “When you’re deciding what you want to do in life you see signposts; you look for signposts,” he says. One of the places Simon teaches now is Chorley. He has found examples of his great grandfather’s work in the cemetery there. 

At York, he met a mason who worked for stonemasonry company Bowman in Stamford. There were vacancies there and Simon applied for a job, which he got.

One project he was given involved cutting a date into the stone of a bridge, which he enjoyed and which provided another signpost to him becoming a sculptor. He attended weekend carving courses at Orton Trust, Northamptonshire, before embarking on a three-year course with the City & Guilds of London Art School and the MA in Art & Architecture at the University of East London.

For his MA he wrote a dissertation on the subject of ‘Arts in Parks’. “You have to read and research a lot for an MA, but I found writing an essay was like producing a carving – you have do the research, then sketch it out and create the structure or skeleton to work from before you eventually arrive at the finished work.”

His latest finished works are the boar’s heads, which have now been fixed on the gateposts they were intended for by mason Michael Barham, because Simon had no way of lifting them into position. He had to hire a forklift and get two people to help him to unload the Portland limestone blocks when they were delivered. When the heads were in place he finished the carvings by removing the supports he had left behind the tusks to protect them during installation.