An addiction to art

The sculpture, titled 'Reed Specimen in Memory of Frank Schmidt' took out Queanbeyan City Council's inaugural Clearwater Sculpture Prize in October. Mr Harman was awarded $3000 in prizemoney.

The buyer, a Canberra man, saw the piece on display down by the Queanbeyan River as part of the River Festival. It will take pride of place in his front yard.

"It's the first time I've sold something through a show," Mr Harman said.

"To win a prize is financially, awesome and to sell it on top of that is great."

The reed-shaped pieces that make up the artwork were made of recycled scrap metal which the artist acquired after his neighbour, Frank Schmidt passed away.

"[My neighbour] was a steel worker and he had so much metal on his property. I helped the people looking after it, clean it up and they said 'take what you like' ...I thought this would lend itself to one of my sculptures," he said.

Mr Harman is more accustomed to working with ceramic rather than steel but he said he enjoyed working with the metal material.

He is currently working on a number of commissioned pieces including ceramic plates to be shipped to London and used to create lamp bases. He also makes mushroom sculptures that are sold at markets.

The ceramicist - originally from Colorado and his partner, Debra Boyd-Goggin, also an artist, and their two children moved to Queanbeyan two years ago.

The pair is active within the local art community, often entering work into the Queanbeyan Regional Art Award which Ms Boyd-Goggin won last year.

"As an artist you can bounce ideas off each other, make things grow and evolve," he said of his relationship with Ms Boyd-Goggin.

Mr Harman shows no signs of slowing down, because making art, in his own words is an 'addiction'.

"Making art is definitely an addiction for me, making anything. I just tinker constantly," he said.

"I don't like sitting still."