About Matthew

Matthew Thompson is a stone carver from East Cork who follows in the footsteps of his father Ken Thompson, and the well known Cork Sculptor, Seamus Murphy.
He works almost exclusively in stone.

Matthew grew up around stone as Ken worked from his workshop at home and Matthew and his siblings spent their time chipping away on small off cuts with some old hammers and chisels. As a child Matthew always had an interest in the natural world and growing up on the estuary in the inner harbour in cork was surrounded by bird life which is where he developed his interest in carving animals.

When Matthew finished school he trained in Ken's workshop and learned to cut letters under the tutelage of the city and Guilds trained letter cutter Charlotte Howarth and also worked on some large sculpture commissions for Ken Thompson learning the skills of working on a large scale. Such projects included roughing out the 9ft sculpture of St. Patrick the pilgrim for Lough Derg and altar furniture for St. Patricks Cathedral in Belfast.

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Having trained in the workshop for 7 years on various projects Matthew moved to Cararra in Italy to rent space in the Nicoli workshop and create his own sculptures and experience the Italian way of working. He spent 3 years living and working in Italy where he learned many new skills and worked in a variety of different types of stones.

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On his return from Italy Matthew set up his own workshop and has been working on both public and private sculptures and memorials.