Simon Gudgeon

Simon Gudgeon’s professional life began not with a plan, but with a quiet refusal. After qualifying as a solicitor, he left law the same day, knowing it was not the life he wanted. Following a recession that cost him his business, home and car, a small gift of paints from his mother set him on a new path. He taught himself to paint before discovering sculpture at the age of 40. “Something immediately clicked,” he reflects. In 2007, he and his wife Monique bought 26 acres of Dorset countryside. What started as a way to pay the mortgage gradually became Sculpture by the Lakes, a place where art and nature enhance one another. Simon soon noticed visitors came not just for the art, but for how the space made them feel. “They talked about peace, stillness and escaping the noise of everyday life,” he says. This realisation led him to explore wellbeing, training in sound healing and meditation. From this grew The Sculpted Soul, a practice offering retreats and workshops within the park’s restorative landscape. Today, his work, which also includes writing, is rooted in one idea: creating space for people to see differently. “Curiosity may be more valuable than certainty,” he explains. “Certainty closes a conversation; curiosity opens one.”