Eden creative Bill Insch's driftwood artworks are definitely a bit fishy

It was a blue groper made from recycled tin roof, tip-found enamel paints, handmade ceramic eye, and a river and beachcombed piece of twisted driftwood.

Bill Insch still recalled the moment four years ago when he came across an oddly shaped piece of wood and thought he could build it into a relief sculpture; a work where figures project from a supporting background.

"The wood I think [inspires me], yeah, it's there and it's lying at your feet," he said with a smile, "The best beach for me is the Nullica beach."

"I prefer hardwood, sometimes softwood, it's the shape [I look for], if it's got a curve in it, it's good, how heavy it is and how big it is."

Using a chainsaw or flap disc for subtle shaping of curves, and a handsaw to cut grooves to attach fins made from found tin, like the piece he discovered in a recycling bin at well-respected mechanic Marty Davidson's garage, Bill began creating a quirky school of fish.

"To get rid of the corrugations, I put the tin out on the street and I drive the car over it to flatten it," he said.

"I make one batch a year, generally, during the Spiral [Gallery] Christmas show," he said, but as he pointed to fish within his garage, he beamed with excitement about the desire to enter the 2024 Sculpture Bermagui festival.

While Bill said the fish were not entirely accurate, he said inspiration came from a beautiful watercolour book called 'Swainston's Fishes of Australia', which provided fin shapes and the colour for some of his pieces.

Within the living room of his early 20th Century home previously owned by Eden whaler William James Greig, it was obvious the home now belonged to an artist, as paintings adorned walls, ceramics sat on a window frame above a clay-covered stainless steel sink with skull-inspired work similar to his artistic daughter Bella, and driftwood fish provided pops of colour.

"This house is perfect for me, because you've got the house, workbench out on the side, and I've got my ensuite tool shed [with] my power tools, [and] all my screws for making fish," Bill said.