A Rainham sculptor who uses recycled metal and reclaimed driftwood to produce his art is set to be the featured artist of the month at an Upminster nature centre.
Otis Griffith, 49, from Edmunds Road has been creating art pieces made from recycled metal and reclaimed driftwood for 20 years.
He has sculpted many animals as well as many other objects including cars and candle sticks.
The artist will be showing a few pieces of his new collection ‘Wings’ at the Thames Chase Forest Centre, Broadfields in Pike Lane, Upminster.
Otis told the Recorder: “I get most of my material from scarp yards, but I have friends who work in car repair, so I get a lot of old parts from there too.
“When I see the materials I can picture what I can and can’t use for my art.”
The Wings collection consists of wildlife including, a barnowl, two dragonflies, a damselfly, a humming bird, a kingfisher and a macaw.
“I became inspired when my sister saw a candlestick holder she liked, so I replicated it for her, I guess it just started from there really,” said the sculptor.
After creating the candlestick, Otis, whose only knowledge of art was at GCSE level at school, transformed his dad’s garage into a work station to make the sculptures.
He recently created a few bespoke handcrafted feathers, which he intends to sell as gifts, titled, ‘Feather for a friend’ with a percentage of the sales going to a charity of the purchaser’s choice.
He is completely self taught and even taught himself how to weld.
“My favourite piece that I’ve made is a full-sized horse containing 3,000 ft of 6mm round steel bar, which I can actually get on myself, but I also really like an owl I recently made which is in my ‘Wings’ collection.” said Otis.
He added: “I will also be displaying some of my new canvas work I made using epoxy resin.”
The exhibition for the artist of the month is open to the public from Saturday. April 27 until Sunday, June 30.
For more on Otis’s art visit his website isotis-art.co.uk.
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