Nick Hopkins was stubbornly determined not to call himself an artist. Instead he said he liked to "free sculpt with power tools" and that he was "just someone who likes to muck around with wood". / (min cost $ 0 ) or signup to continue reading But buyers of his work tend to disagree.
Nick, from Lilli Pilli, is currently exhibiting at , with four of his creations on display. One fervent exhibition goer spotted his piece 'Balancing Act' through the window of the indoor gallery, before the exhibition had even begun, and insisted on purchasing the piece. Nick, who works only in wood, largely timbers he has scavenged or repurposed, creates sublime pieces that sing out the natural beauty of the wood he chooses.
His love and deep respect for the material was evident, and he had most recently been working with plantation hoop pine plywood from Queensland. "That's making a bit of a statement," he said. "I will use salvaged timber - hardwood that comes out of wherever I can find it, but I never would drop a tree to use that timber.
" Trained as a landscape architect Nick admitted he had a strong design background, but when it came to wood turning and sculpting he was entirely self-taught. He confessed that many of his ideas, such as 'Balancing Act' were born out of insomnia. "So I lie awake at night and these ideas will run through my head and then I have to turn the light on and scribble things down on my notepad," he said.
"A lot of these ideas are born from sort of a frenetic, sleepl.