Original mixed automata 'Blue Shark' on canvas by Falmouth-based artist Ben Baker. 

Dimensions -  57 x 46cm

'Ben Baker studied at Hereford College of art for his BA (Hons) in Design Craft. He now lives and works on his work full time in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Whilst at Hereford he developed his three-dimensional, illustrative style of sculpture. Many of Ben’s pieces are interactive, utilising mechanisms so the viewer can animate the scene by simply turning a handle.

Ben has lived all over the southwest of England. Being on the coast is his biggest inspiration. He enjoys the sense of nostalgia and the aesthetic that linger in and around the Cornish coastal communities. He draws on a lifetime of living on the southwest coast and his twelve years of experience working as a boat builder in and around his Falmouth home. His subjects vary but focus on creatures of the coast and the sea, alongside his passion for boats and the culture that surrounds them.

He uses several grades of iron wire to transform his fluid single line drawings into a tangible version. He likes to pair these with found and reclaimed timber, often using pieces from the actual vessel.  The wire drawings are destined to either stand still or come to life using cranks, levers and threads of nylon.  The mechanisms themselves add a level of intrigue and play that Ben himself gets so much joy from.'