SCULPTOR Jonathan Cox took a long and winding road, geographically and in his career, before finding himself in the Hampshire village of Broughton in a studio of an 18th century farm barn.

His artistic talents had brought him a good career, one that would be envied by many, working in the heady and expensive world of films. He produced effects - although he wouldn't necessarily label them as 'artistic' - for The Labyrinth, Alien and A Fish Called Wanda.

In the latter his efforts revolved, for a time, around the construction of two robotic-type miniature, yappy dogs which met their end in a series of horrible accidents.

Jonathan was making money but became increasingly frustrated.

"It was always the director's ideas, never your own. It was a bit incestuous, you had to be on call all the time to talk to the producers. It wasn't the life I wanted to lead so I decided to get up and go."

He went to Africa where, unhappily for his new-found ideas of freedom from routine, he caught cerebral malaria, a life-threatening disease that left him unable to walk for three months.

"I thought, if I can survive this I can do anything so I bought an old car and drove to Carrara in Italy where the marble comes from. I thought I would stay three months.

"It was the romantic idea of artists working in a community on the coast, producing work they loved but I literally found what I wanted to do."

The marble captured his dreams and he stayed in Italy for 11 years until, unbidden, the time came to move again.

He returned to England to teach, which he had also done in Italy.

He had pupils but no studio until he bumped into someone who revealed that a friend's grandmother, already a carver in wood and clay, would like to learn to sculpt in marble.

That was Margot Dent whose home is Manor Farm, Broughton.

"We got on very well and she said 'Pick a barn' and that is how it started."

Jonathan, in between commissions, now runs The Zen Sculpture Studio. Pupils tackle Portland or Bath limestone and the emphasis is on releasing the expression that the sculptor wants to achieve.

Classes are on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. For information e-mail Jonathanloxley@aol.com or ring 01722 782966 or 0777696 74202.