‘Made in Amamoor’ gallery opens in sculptor’s home

Paul Meakin, 64, first began making sculptures out of scrap metal and old car parts a year ago, but now has opened a private-viewing gallery in his Amamoor home for visitors to admire his creations.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure in the case of Mary Valley sculptor Paul Meakin, who opened a private-viewing gallery to display his homemade, upcycled, metal sculptures in his Amamoor home this week.

‘Made in Amamoor’ began as a project during COVID, where Mr Meakin made commissioned metal sculptures out of scrap metal.

Each sculpture is unique and individually designed by Mr Meakin, individually numbered and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

The gallery features an array of these artworks, all of which are made from upcycled scrap materials, kindly donated by his mechanic friends.

Cuddles the 'brakeosaur', one of Paul Meakin's favourite artworks.

He said he first started making the sculptures a year ago out of a shed in his backyard, which is now where he stores all the scrap metal and car parts for his artworks.

“It was a bit of a COVID project I guess,” he said.

He said his interest was first sparked after constructing some lights for Project Green at Amamoor in 2020, and his creativity grew from there.

“It sort of came out of nowhere, and I just sort of found I had the ability to put these things together.”

As well as being on display in his home, Mr Meakin also does commissioned works.

“Usually people have seen what I do, my style of thing, I build from there and give them a quote on how much it’s going to cost,” he said.

Winston the dog, one of Paul Meakin's commissioned artworks.

He also said the sculptures on display in his home were available for purchase, with prices determined by the size and amount of time it takes to create the artwork.

Most artworks take a week to create.

The gallery is only a private-viewing establishment for the time being, Mr Meakin said.

“If people want to have a look, if they’re interested in that sort of thing, they can ring up and say ‘yeah, we’d like to have a look’...rather than an open-house type thing,” he said.

Some of Paul Meakin's artworks.

Mr Meakin said he has no current plans to expand the gallery, but hopes he can continue building sculptures people enjoy.