Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
on this month: artwave<br />
FOCUS ON: ‘Eagle’ by Ptolemy Elrington<br />
(2.35m high, £6000)<br />
How would you describe your work? I specialise in working with recycled materials and mostly make<br />
sculptures of natural life forms. I use car hubcaps, car bumpers, shopping trolleys and scrap metal. I work<br />
with metal and plastic. I started with plastic and then accepted a commission involving metal and had to<br />
teach myself how to weld in double quick time. I enjoyed the process so much I kept on doing it.<br />
What equipment do you use? I like to work with basic hand tools when I’m using the hubcaps. Various<br />
types of hacksaws and pliers, wire cutters and clamps. I also use a battery hand drill. With the metal I use<br />
angle grinders, a mig welder, and have to wear protective clothing - a welder’s helmet, goggles, overalls,<br />
thick gloves and steel toe-capped boots. It gets hot in all that gear in the summer.<br />
Tell me about a few other pieces you’ll be featuring in your Artwave show. I’m bringing an enormous<br />
lady Samurai made from stainless steel, a selection of hubcap sculptures, a couple of giant raven<br />
skeletons and a baboon skeleton made out of old shopping trolleys. I’m currently working on a new piece<br />
which I hope to have finished in time for the show - that’s a surprise.<br />
Describe your studio... I share with two other guys and my area looks a bit like WALL-E’s container (if<br />
you’ve seen the Pixar movie) It looks chaotic but I know more or less where everything is.<br />
What inspires you artistically? Other recycled sculptors. My current favourites are Igor Vernly, Helen<br />
Denerley and Edouard Martinet. I’m also stimulated by a few artists including Caravaggio, Goya, Gaudi<br />
and Moebius.<br />
What’s your favourite gallery? I like the National Portrait Gallery in London. As told to Emma Chaplin<br />
Ptolemy is part of the More Fresh Paint exhibition with the Sussex Watercolour Society, including<br />
Nick Orsborn, at the Foundry Gallery, 32 North Street. From 22-30, 11-5pm. Sat 29 will be<br />
an events day, featuring demonstrations.<br />
33
Change language