See how three massive stones are transformed by Peter Randall Page into a public art experience at a shopping centre in Basingstoke

The sculptor and Royal Academician Peter Randall Page, stars in this fascinating programme which takes the viewer through the processes required to create Still Life (1988) - three sculptures for public display at a shopping centre in Chineham, Basingstoke. Working from a rural workshop adjacent to his home, Peter uses a variety of equipment and tools to fashion three very large stones into the naturalist sculptures that he enjoys creating. Briefly describing his experience since graduation, Peter notes that his work restoring elements of Wells Cathedral's medieval façades helped his own stylistic development. A sequence of stills show examples of Peter's work as well as his visit to a quarry in Kilkenny, Ireland to select the particular type of limestone that he wanted to us. Commissioned by Hampshire County Council to produce the sculptures, Peter's choice of naturalistic shapes, in this case a shell, a fruit and a chrysalis, was determined firstly by his preference for art being out in the open, experienced by passers-by, rather than being contained in galleries. And secondly, by his belief that his sculptures can communicate the primal joy of feeling ‘what it's like to be alive in the world'. For Peter, the process of carving stone is even more important than ideas and a whole vocabulary of tools comes into use - including an overhead crane to manoeuvre heavy stones; callipers to mark out the required shapes, huge drills to create holes, plugs & feathers for splitting the stones, angle-grinders, pitching and pointing punches, bush hammers and pneumatic hammers to face the stones and, to get the final smooth finish, simple emery papers. At the official ‘unveiling' we see Peter and his family being praised by county councillors, while representatives of the local press report and photograph the finished work at Chineham Shopping Centre.