Scarborough horticulturalist Kieran Kelly used his green fingers to create a metal and stone tree to take out the top award in the 2016 Greenbushes Art Trail and Exhibition.
His sculpture Lone Tree won the People’s Choice Award in the exhibition and a cash prize of $1000.
Although accustomed to his day job working with living plants, he turned his talents to creating a bronze tree using the copper and parts from recycled water heaters.
Mr Kelly painstakingly soldered hand cut copper leaves to the branches of his sculpture before connecting the tree roots to a granite rock.
“I spent many nights in my shed after work listening to [the] radio and cutting the leaves for the sculpture,” he said.
It is only the third art exhibition he has entered and he credits his sister, who is also an artist, for encouraging him to enter the Greenbushes Art Trail and Exhibition.
The children’s award of $100 was split between siblings Jasper and Ruby Mills for their recycled art.
