Born 1959 in May-Day hospital Croydon greater south London. The only
class-room subjects Brent Beaumont ever showed any interest in were
art work and model making. He had a total and absolute disregard for
all other academic subjects. All through out his entire eleven years
of education he clashed violently with his teachers and all authoritarian
figures and spent a lot of the time standing outside the class room
for disruptive behaviour.
During Brent Beaumont’s last year at school after learning that
his final art exam would be a ‘Still-Life’ subject matter,
his art teacher told him that in his opinion it would be a total waste
of time sitting the exam and accused Brent of not having any imagination.
This statement totally shattered any confidence that Brent had in
his own artistic ability and failed to sit the CSE art exam. It therefore
comes as a complete surprise to most people to learn that Brent Beaumont
to this day has no formal training or any art qualifications to his
name. Many years later Brent returned to visit his old school and
was invited to sit down to lunch by the very same art teacher who
asked Brent in front of a table full of his colleagues what sort of
work he was doing. Brent told him that he was a sculptor who sold
his work all over the world. Brent couldn't resist the opportunity
of telling him that as a teacher he had totally failed his profession
by not encouraging his student to sit an examination. However,never
one to hold a grudge with a smile on his face Brent shook hands with
his old art teacher and said "Maybe one day I'll make
you famous"
Even though Brent found it easy the idea of drawing a bowl
of fruit from his imagination and correctly interpreting the light
and shade was not something Brent could take seriously. Brent's idea
of an art exam or an artistic challenge was to replicate something
to near perfection. Most of the time he spent his art lessons copying
small black and white pictures of either ‘Pele’ or ‘Bruce
Lee’ and making enlarged perfectly scaled copies in colour and
found all other forms of art totally boring.”
After Brent Beaumont left secondary school in the summer of 1975 he
dabbled with art but never took it seriously. In 1980 he got a job
as a pen and ink illustrator unfortunately the contract only lasted
for a year. Brent had the ability of being able to work very fast
when doing portraits. However Brent also found this work unfulfilling
and become bored and disillusioned with his art and apart from doing
six water colour paintings for his new apartment he did no further
art work for the next ten years. “I knew that I had
to be creative, when I was not being artistically creative it felt
like my life had no purpose to it. I realised that the medium of art
that I was using had to change”
“Since
1968 Brent had become a fanatical Brazil football supporter and he
said that the first World Cup trophy the ‘Jules Rimet’
cup was the most beautiful trophy that he had ever seen. So in 1991
he decided to try to make a full life size replica out of plasticine,
more for his own amusement than anything else. However after completing
the replica he was more than pleased with the results. So in 1994
Brent went on to make a replica of the current World Cup trophy ‘The
FIFA World Cup’ using as a base material ‘Polyfilla’
and once again he was extremely pleased with the results. “I
realised almost by accident and as a result of my own amusement that
my artistic talents also included highly detailed fine art replicated
sculpting.”
“Sometime during 1997 whilst sitting in a dentist’s
waiting room thumbing through a magazine I came across an A4 colour
picture of ‘Tutankhamun’. Even though I had seen many
pictures of ‘Tutankhamun’ many times before, for some
reason I couldn’t forget the impact that this particular picture
had on me. I soon started to collect as many different pictures from
as many different angles of ‘Tutankhamun’ almost to the
point of obsession and stuck them on my kitchen wall. The next two
years was spent just studying them. I eventually made a start on the
project journey that would take me a total of five years to complete”.

Brent Beaumont set himself a challenge: to re-create one of the
most famous objects from antiquity - The Gold Mask of Tutankhamun.
Never having attempted anything of this size or complexity before,
and not having seen the original, he worked from photographs and measurement
of the mask to create a full-sized copy, carved from a well known
brand of wall-filler on a base of wood, wire and paper. The finished
sculpture was then moulded and cast in resin to produce a hollow mask.
The ears, royal insignia and beard had to be made and cast separately
and attached to the mask, which was then carefully gilded in 23.5
carat gold leaf. The details of the inlay were painted on. Brent's
attention to detail is amazing. Every single piece of inlay is shown,
including all the areas of damage and missing pieces, and the long
inscription on the rear of the mask. He has also reproduced the separate
gold necklace found attached to the mask. The result is one of the
best replicas of the mask ever seen and it is stunning when viewed
closely - something that cannot be done with the original. Brent hopes
that collectors of Egyptian replicas and also some museums will be
interested in the mask, which he will reproduce as a limited edition
replica. It has to be the ultimate replica for anyone's collection.
Brent Beaumont was asked to describe his ability to replicate other
original pieces of art work.
“I would describe my artistic ability as a ‘Sculpting
Copyist’, I don’t know why I copy things the way I do.
I just feel an overwheming compulsion to do so. The basic criterion
is usually to replicate original works of art that either doesn't
exist anymore or would be to difficult for members of the public to
gain access to. I want to give people the opportunity of seeing close
up or owning something special that otherwise would be out of their
reach. Some times people criticise me for not being original like
my art teacher at school but I really can't help it. When I was younger
my ability and compulsion to replicate used to frighten me as I couln't
understand why i did it, but now I don’t question it I just
submit to it totally. Art is female and and when she calls me I have
a love affair with her. I don’t choose the subject matter, it
chooses me and if my work gives you pleasures and puts a smile on
your face then that makes me feel fantastic”
In the near future Brent also intends to sculpt a full life size bust of Akhenaten-Tutankhamun's father and a full life size bust of Queen Nefertiti, Akhenaten's wife.