Martin Barraud is a multi-disciplinary artist focused on bringing thought and reaction from his three-dimensional art, sculpted in many forms from a great range of media. Indeed, he is very deliberately not tied to particular construction methods or style, believing this frees him up to think as widely as possible around any given brief, commission or self-funded project.

Formally trained at the sought-after Salisbury College of Art in photography, he has used those skills combined with his profound engagement with creating physical 3D art to have what he considers a fulfilling artistic career.

In the 90’s he was building giant white walls on the side of a small airport, constructing 4-tier-high stacks of filing cabinets in the South African plains, wrapping a whole house in bubble wrap and putting a lawn mower and its user on a 2m² patch of specially created ‘island’ - all substantial artworks in their own right, then duly photographed to the highest possible standard.

More recently Martin created ‘There But Not There’ an Installation of sculpted, clear silhouetted figures to represent those that did not return from WW1, the concept being to ‘take their names off the walls’ and back into their communities, if only in spirit. It ended up in over 4,000 communities nationally thanks to a grant of £2m from the UK Government Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.

The ‘Tommy’ figure that he designed to accompany There But Not There has gone on to become a symbol of Remembrance in the UK in itself and now forms a major element of the Royal British Legion Industries logo.

Martin was honoured to be invited to create the Prostate Cancer UK Memorial in 2021. It had to serve as a platform for those that might want to add a name, raise awareness and encourage fundraising. The response from those who did have sad cause to add a name was profoundly moving and Martin remains very proud of this substantial artwork.

His ’Bootprint’ installation in 2019 was to mark the moment 75 years on from the disastrous D-Day landings practice in Devon, England when 749 US personnel were lost to the sea in Operation Tiger.
His artwork sought to give profound respect to those who perished, to resonate with those locally who know some of the story and those further afield who had never heard of the sad events.
He is still receiving comments about this artwork and its effectiveness.

Throughout his career Martin has picked up numerous awards (including two highly prestigious D&AD Yellow Pencils) and worked on many very different briefs and commissions.

As you may have gathered from this website and his opening statement, Martin is both profoundly honoured and artistically inspired to have established a name in creating effective memorials for the human spirit.