A contemporary sculpture in marble and lead inset lettering.

The finished sculpture sold at the auction in London for a record breaking £38,000 helping raise funds for two of Mark's chosen charities. This sculpture has very kindly been donated to the new Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth to be opened in 2020. It will be there as a testament to all those who have suffered whilst in service and who now rebuild their lives with the help of these invaluable charities. The Royal Marines Charity and Blesma, Military Charity for Limbless Veterans.

Back in November 2016 we begin the story of this rather usual coming together of artist, Ben Dearnley and ex Royal Marine, Mark Ormrod.  Below is a brief document of the collaboration these two individuals have created and we will soon see the finished work go into the world with a mission to raise the maximum funds possible to help other service men and women who are coming home and beginning to rebuild their own lives in much the same way Mark has had to.

By now we are all aware of the amazing achievements of the incredible life force which is Mark Ormrod. Especially after him winning the hearts and minds of all of us back here in the UK with such a fantastic show at Toronto's Invictus Games: Him being awarded highest accolade, 'The Man of the Games' award, as well as winning 4 medals along the way.


The project:

This amazing project began with a live casting session at Mark's home. Ben traveled down to Plymouth and with the help of Mark's wife Becky and his two children, Evie and Mason, proceeded to cover him in plaster. Though who ended up with the most plaster on them is still under discussion!

Ben says, "After seeing Mark take up different positions, I instinctively knew the moment I wish to capture and transfer to marble for all time. I got Mark as comfortable as possible, asked him to replicate the position and hold it for up to 20 minutes. I then began the work of freezing that posture in plaster. In this instance I saw quite quickly a wonderful image which seemed to be almost straight out of the the Classical Greek sculpture section of the British museum.

Next we took a life cast directly from the Mark's body. This cast allowed me to work up a static model back in my studio on the west coast of Wales. I felt it was a little too much to ask Mark to come to me and hang around for days on end while I measured and modeled him in clay. And this method is much kinder on the sitter, though a little uncomfortable if you have much body hair!"

After the plaster copy is made Ben chose his block of marble. This he has selected from the mountains of Carrara in Italy, very close to the same quarry which was used centuries ago by Michelangelo, a truly magical place where Heroes in marble have been born for over 2000 years.

The block for this work was 150 kilograms to begin with and was chosen for its natural coloring as there is a dramatic shift from the pure white to the streaks of flecked grey running down the right hand side of the figure.

Traditional techniques were used to create the work as a marble sculpture. This work called for something a bit special to distinguish this as a direct copy of Mark's torso. Ben had to learn the craft of lettering in lead, though the surface he was to apply this to was rather tricky as it was on a double curved surface. To capture and reference the Royal Marines tattoo Mark has on his left shoulder, Ben decided to used the inset method of leading. The lettering is first fully carved and then lead hammered into place and finished flush to the final surface. The end result shines back as a reflection and fragment of the whole tattoo, in much the same way that the torso is a fragment of the man, who himself is a fragment of his former self – though Mark himself says"I feel more complete now" rather, more of a complete individual than many of us can ever hope to be.

Mark is an incredible inspiration to so many. He embodies the term 'Hero'. He puts his whole heart and soul into whatever he sets out to do, in much the same way as he did when he was in the Marines, where he was trained to the highest levels and developed the ability to push all known boundaries into the stratosphere. It is with great respect for his enduring positive attitude in the face of such difficult circumstances that this piece of unique art work has been made.

SOLD for £38,000 at the charity auction and has been donated to the Royal Marines new Museum in Portsmouth to be opened in 2020