Last updated at 21:28, Thursday, 04 March 2010

WE'VE got the Angel of the North, Michaelangelo's Statue of David and now Furness could have it's own iconic image.
LEO CLARKE talks to gifted sculptor Shawn Wiliamson

A MAN who has rubbed shoulders with royalty is turning to God for his next ambitious project.

Shawn Williamson, one of the area’s leading sculptors, wants to create a huge 20ft Face of Christ and one of the spots he is looking at is the beautiful Furness Abbey.

Although still in the early stages, the 48-year-old Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, believes the type of stone around the abbey would be the ideal material to work on.

Of course he will need permission to produce his masterpiece, which is based on the face taken from the Shroud of Turin, and he aims to contact English Heritage which manages the land for owner Lord Cavendish.

Shawn, living in Ravenglass, also hopes to receive help from the government for his plan.

The sculptor is no stranger to Barrow, having produced images while working with the community close to the abbey.

In March 2005, HRH Prince Charles unveiled Shawn’s 14-ton sculpture of a Herdwick ram marking the Cumbrian breed at Cockermouth.

His latest work of a coelacanth – a prehistoric fish – is just completed and up for sale.

The eight-feet long, three-ton sculpture is carved in Brathay slate is at Skelwith Bridge, Kirkstone. It has a price tag of £10,000 and Shawn has already had a few offers for it. When sold it would help finance the Face of Christ project.

“We are looking for a suitable rock face. I am going to have a look round Furness Abbey at some point to see if there is anything round there that we might be able to use,” said Shawn.

“It would be a community project to train people who are interested in wanting to learn stone sculpture.

Shawn believes the Face of Christ would, on completion, be a significant tourist attraction for Furness.

He said the sculpture is based on the idea of having a potent spiritual icon back in from what he sees as spiritually bereft times.

He added: “I have always been interested historically by the Knights Templar, and they have got a lot of corresponding history in the Furness area and the Shroud of Turin, which was held by them for a long time and looked after, so there is a two-way interest between them and the image on the Shroud of Turin, the Face of Christ.”

Shawn plans to have a detailed look at the rock faces in area, and said: “Anywhere in the vicinity of Furness Abbey would be fantastic just because of the history with the abbey. It would be carved into a rock face hopefully somewhere around Furness Abbey. That’s the idea, because I have already worked in the sandstone from that area.”

He believes the image would take six months complete and said: “I would like to start when the weather got better in spring and, hopefully, it would contribute to Furness Abbey being the fantastic tourist attraction that we know it is.

“We are going to approach English Heritage and also Lord Cavendish to see if he has any ideas, to see if he will help us with it, help us realise the potential.”

He added: “We might be able to get some help off the government because it is trying to help craft training happen for young people, because it is dying out fundamentally, the training for young people in masonry, stone carving. I would like to involve the community in the project.”

Richard Polley, head of visitor operations (Hadrian’s Wall, Cumbria and Lancashire), said that he would be more than happy to talk to Shawn about his proposal.

Holker Hall estate property manager Rachel Beadling believed Lord Cavendish would be very interested to find out more about it and see what’s involved.

Although his original Face of Christ carving was sold to Gorton Monastery in Manchester, Shawn still has copies of it from which he can work on.

During his career Shawn, originally from Morecambe, has produced many fine examples of sculpture, his commissions of which can be seen in Lancaster, London, Canada and the North of Scotland along with others dotted around West Cumbria.

Shawn has always had a passion for his art and remembers progressing from woodwork to pottery at school.

He went to college in Weymouth, Dorset, raising funds for his education by working as a merchant seaman from the age of 17, shovelling iron ore 16 hours a day for three years in the Great Lakes of Canada. Shawn subsequently returned to sea in 1989-1991 working on a rescue boat servicing the oil rigs in North Sea.

Shawn was elected to the Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts last year in recognition of the work he had done in bringing an educational element into the arts and getting young people involved with big projects.

He was the man behind the Cumbria Rock Sculpture, the community arts programme which created both the statue of the Herdwick ram and the lion statue, to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

His tutor was Josefina de Vasconcellas, who worked for much of her life in the Lake District, including some time at Isel Hall, near Cockermouth, and who died in 2005 aged 100.

Shawn said of his life: “I didn’t want to fit into an established career I wanted to do something creative, because that’s where my talents lay, that and creative writing.”

First published at 13:10, Friday, 13 November 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk