THE Beatles carved out a reputation of being game changers, transforming popular music by marrying raw rhythm and blues roots with timeless melody and sparking a rock revolution.

Simon O’Rourke has carved out a reputation, quite literally, transforming trees into works of art, using chainsaws and chisels to create all manner of sculptures from superheroes to wildlife.

So it was inevitable, perhaps, that called upon to work live before a crowd at a Global Beatles Day event on Liverpool’s famous Pier Head, the artist’s thoughts turned to the Fab Four who put the city on the map.

The remarkable result was a group of life-sized figures depicting John, Paul, George and Ringo. That was back on June 25, 2017 – but now the Beatles are up for auction to help a children’s hospice charity.

Simon, whose work I have featured in the blog on a couple of occasions, says the piece was initially auctioned off after the Liverpool gig, but has recently been donated to Haven House Children’s Hospice.

Read more: The real-life giant in the Welsh woods

The Essex-based charity has now put it up for sale with auction house Sworders, where it is expected to attract an estimated £800 to £1,200. The sale starts at 10am on February 7, and it’s Lot No 218.

The catalogue listing reads: “Simon O’Rourke (contemporary), ‘The Beatles’, 2017, a group of four life-sized chainsaw-carved wood sculptures, each depicting a member of the Beatles, signed to the base, each 182cm high.

“The group was made by O’Rourke on Global Beatles Day, 25 June 2017 with a live display at the Liverpool Pier.”

To see more pictures of the Fab Four sculpture, and perhaps to bid in the auction, click here.

Read more: The curious child hidden in a church garden

Haven House Children’s Hospice was first conceived in the early 1990s, as the brainchild of Sue Irwin, a registered nurse and health visitor, who with friends and colleagues founded the charity to provide care to life-limited children and their families at no cost to them.

To see more of Simon’s remarkable work, head to his website treecarving.co.uk and follow him on Instagram @simonorourke. For more on Haven House click here.