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'Solitude' under a UV light

"It's basically all the products you would use for spraying cars," says Kevin Sweeney an artist from Barnston near Great Dunmow.

Art helped Kevin to change his life

That's how he creates these shiny sculptures and he's had plenty of success at getting them displayed. His first creations were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in London and recent pieces have been shown at Stansted Airport.

One of Kevin's more inventive displays involved him wading through the Doctor's Pond, in Great Dunmow, and placing one of his giant polished eggs on the duck island.

Quite a surprise for residents of the north Essex town.

Kevin's first piece 'Caring'

Kevin is pleased with the reaction of Dunmow to the egg: "I've spoken to the Town Council and I will be putting something on the island next year. They phoned up and gave me a bit of a telling off, 44-years-old and I shouldn't be wading through water!"

The sculptures are modelled with chicken wire and fibreglass before being spray painted.

"Normally most sculptures start with a block and the artist works in. I actually start from a skeleton and work outwards. So, I use chicken wire which is galvanized, something that won't rust to make the frame," he says.

Kevin's inspiration to start making the works of art came from an unlikely source: "A very good friend of mine committed suicide and that encouraged me to make the first piece called 'Caring'."

Egg on the pond in Dunmow

Other factors that influenced his art include Kevin moving to the north Essex countryside and getting rid of his cocaine addiction.

"After my breakdown, one of the big things was to get out of the town and get away from all the cocaine. And that was a very difficult thing for me because I'm a social person," he says.

The Splat from different angles

'The Splat' is the latest piece of work Kevin has been working on and it was recently displayed at the Brightlingsea Boat Show.

He's hoping the work will eventually go on show in a public space rather than being sold to a private collector.听听听听

Kevin says being able to put his skills as a car painter to more interesting effect allows him to be creative and now it's a case of making art his number one profession.