PLATTS-MILLS, Ben

1948 - 2014

Benjamin Fortesque Platts-Mills was born at Westminster, London in 1948, son of John Faithful Fortescue Platts-Mills, Q.C. (4 October 1906-26 October 2001), a former Member of Parliament, his mother's maiden name is given as Adler, although his father married at Westminster in 1936, Janet Katherine née Cree (18 March 1910-17 March 1992). Ben spent two years at art college and two years as an apprentice carving marble in Italy. On his return to England, he commenced drawing and painting pictures, living in near poverty. Ben had lived at Eye, Suffolk from 1977 and after the 1987 the Great Storm he started the Eye Town Moors Woodlands project, which enabled him to work in three dimensions and learn about the environment, trees, ecology, and volunteers. He lived, with three others, on a site called 'Heaven' in the corner of a field belonging to a sawmill. Most of his work was for outdoor public spaces, completed for a particular place and then transported but sometimes he carved a tree in situ. His work can be found at Hardings Pits in South Lynn, Kings Lynn; Fairstead Green, North Lynn, Kings Lynn; Signposts for the Little Ouse Headwaters Project, Blo Norton, Norfolk; ‘Kingfishers’ for Tower Homes in Sidcup, Kent; Gateway Project, Hitcham, Suffolk and he has exhibited with the Harleston and Waveney Art Trail. He married in Suffolk in 1986, Jane A. Allerton. Benjamin Fortesque Platts-Mills died at Eye on 9 November 2014.

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Works by This Artist