Our speaker for 11^th June 2026 is Aiden Hynes, a commercial artist and sculptor.

Aiden been the managing director of his own business, Sculpture Studios, in Basildon for almost 40 years.

The work commissioned at his studio is predominantly for the Film, Television, Theme Park, Theatre and Exhibition industries. Anything from an opera performance, public art, and large scale art installations, to personal art and back garden pieces, the scale of what they create varies greatly. His forte is large scale polystyrene carving, whereby they often create production moulds and runs in glass fibre, with each project tailoring to an individual brief, some pieces only required to last a day, with others being installed permanently for years. The majority of his work is naturally UK based, but many of his pieces have been installed in numerous countries around the world.

Aiden’s talk starts with his younger years, family, the challenges of early schooling with dyslexia, others around him tackling education with apparent ease, and where his initial inspiration and pivotal moment to pursue art and my career came from. He traces his movement from a foundation college to studying BA hons degree in sculpture fine art at uni. That path took him on a journey from being 7 years freelance to eventually deciding to set up his own studio in his home town of Basildon, whereby, for the past 40 years, he now creates 3D commercial sculptures for well recognised locations, brands, shows, commercials, and companies.

He highlights the pitfalls, trails and tribulations of running his own studio, plus combining bringing up a young family at the same time, showing it is possible to do both in equal measure. Aiden concludes by showing a sample of his work, and talking through some of his more notable projects, and where he is today moving forwards with his wife and business partner, Sue.