Basil Watson calls it an honor to create a likeness of Smalls, the first Black person honored with a statue at the SC State House.

Robert Smalls​ escaped slavery in Charleston by commandeering a Confederate ship and became a top Union naval officer and South Carolina lawmaker.

Artist Basil Watson is creating the first statue of an African American, Civil War hero Robert Smalls, to be placed on South Carolina's Statehouse grounds.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Basil Watson emigrated to the United States in 2002, setting up a home and studio in Lawrenceville. In addition to creating the local Hope Moving Forward monument of the ...

A model by Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson for a statue the University of South Carolina commissioned him to create honoring Henrie Monteith Treadwell, Robert Anderson and James Solomon Jr., the ...

It was a brief encounter, but as with nearly everyone who ever met the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, the meeting was impactful. It was 2005 at an art fair and sculptor Basil Watson, just three years ...

When Basil Watson accepts a commission for a project, posterity not glory, is etched in his mind. Educating through his work is critical. On Saturday, Watson's second statue of track ...

His father, Barry Watson is also an international acclaimed artist and first introduced him to drawing and to the works of French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, who completed the work, “The Thinker ...

Lewis died in July 2020 at the age of 80. Speaking at the ceremony announcing his commission on Thursday, Watson said he met the late congressman briefly at an art fair. “Everyone was so excited.