THE work of a Drimpton artist created out of an old hoe and sisal string will grace the brochure of this year’s Dorset Art Weeks 2014 open studios event.

The catalogue will show a picture of Guy Martin’s sculpture, created from a neighbour’s discarded rusty garden hoe and a handful of teased-out sisal.

His winning competition entry also won him £250 for work he calls Ho Ho.

He said: “It was a real surprise to win. I only submitted it as a bit of fun. I was having a run on making fun pieces, which was a departure for me because normally I am quite serious.”

Last year he was clearing the stream in his garden and building up a river defence system with 100 sleepers when he decided to do something with all the artefacts he was pulling from the mud.

Pieces of cast iron bath and other found objects were transformed into sculptures and it was while Guy was still in this frame of mind that he came across the rusty hoe in a nearby garden and immediately saw its potential. Guy trained in London as a sculptor at the Saint Martin’s School of Art and worked with the British abstract sculptor Anthony Caro in his studio before moving into furniture making in 1984.

For six years from 1988 he was the principal design tutor at Parnham House, Beaminster, John Makepeace’s wood craft school.

His furniture has been shown around the country in an Arts Council solo touring, but since 2009 he has been concentrating on sculpture again. He said: “I tend to follow the direction of my feet, which means I jump around a bit. I feel very strongly that I am still exploring.”

The 50 entries were whittled down to a shortlist of six and the judges debated for hours before declaring a winner.

There will be 50,000 DAW brochures distributed throughout the country for the bi-annual 16-day event, which this year runs from May 24 to June 9.