“You need to have a real job first, and have your art as a hobby,” Mr Dimmer said.

“I wouldn’t like to be trying to raise a family and support a family or trying to buy a house on the intermittent income from an art practice.

“It’s a passion. It has been for the last 20 years, since I gave up my real job. The reason we could do it was that we owned everything. And I had a small pension from the airforce to keep us going. 

“But there were times when you’d get a bill and think ‘how in the bloody hell am I going to pay this?’

“Every time I had one of those things, something happened and I sold something, and it was enough, always, to cover the bill. It must be some kind of karma. I think it scared my wife more than it scared me.”

Mr Dimmer describes sculpting as “a long apprenticeship,” – one he started at the age of 10 – and believes he works faster and better than ever.

“If you keep practising, generally, you get better, especially if you’re passionate,” he said.

 “It’s like a job, except I enjoy it. Lots of people have jobs they don’t enjoy, but I’m lucky. If I’ve worked eight, 10 hours (in a day), it’s enough.”

Mr Dimmer said his passion had grown with him.

“Mine’s a long-enduring passion,” he said.

“New machinery, new equipment, different materials, they all send you down a different track. Quite often it’s an experiment. Luckily enough, most of them turn out alright – some are failures, and end up in the garden.

“When I first started welding, I just had a stick welder, and I was using it to weld sheet metal – stick welders are supposed to be for welding thick stuff – and I was blowing holes in it all the time.

“At first I was trying to patch them, and then I thought, why don’t I just leave the holes? So the sculptures ended up with all these little holes, and it was a texture thing, and it worked. It is about play.”

Mr Dimmer said he is still learning.

“I teach myself everything – that’s a lot easier now because there’s lots of tutorials on the internet,” he said.

“When I was younger, if I was working on a project, while I was at (paid) work I’d be thinking about what I was going to do. Often you’d solve that problem in the back of your head by the time you’ve come home.

“Practice makes perfect. I just get stuck in, I don’t care if I make a mistake, because sometimes the mistakes turn out to be good for something else.”

Mr Dimmer said each work is one of a kind.

“Generally I don’t do anything more than once, or if I do, I put variations in it,” he said.

“When you do it a second time – it’s not mass production, because it’s only the second one, but you’ve worked out lots of the challenges and problems. It can be a little bit boring, and that’s why I try to change it.”

He prefers creating to collecting.

“People ask me, ‘do you get attached to things’. When you finish a piece you keep looking at it and think ‘jeez I like that, I might keep it’ – but it wears off,” he said.

“Not everyone likes everything I do; even I don’t like everything I do.”

Mr Dimmer has several artworks in Sculpture on Clyde – at the indoor and outdoor exhibitions.

One massive outdoor piece, to be exhibited at Willinga Park, was inspired by the myth of Harlequin and Columbine.

“Columbine was a fantastic dancer, and she danced all around the world,” Mr Dimmer said.

“Harlequin was a clown, and he loves Columbine, but she’s not so keen. He’s always chasing after her.”

If you’d like to chase after Mr Dimmer’s sculptures, visit 5 Clyde Street, Batemans Bay and Willinga Park, Bawley Point, from August 25. Buses from Batemans Bay to Willinga Park run Saturday and Sunday for $15 (includes entry to Willinga Park). A free bus will operate Monday to Friday. Bookings: www.sculptureonclyde.com.au