If it wasn't for Sculpture Bermagui former painter and graphic artist Jen Mallinson may never have found her true calling.
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Now an internationally recognised sculptor, Ms Mallinson was artistic from the start.
Growing up, she was always drawing and then studied ceramics for four years.
"I always liked the three dimensions like ceramics but then I studied graphics and went totally away from 3D," she said.
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What brought her back was visiting Sculpture Bermagui in 2008.
"I thought I can do that, I want to do that, I am going to do that."
She learnt welding at TAFE and loved it so much she returned to study engineering for heavy metal fabrication.
By 2010 she had found her affinity for working with steel and hasn't painted since.
Loves the physicality
"I don't know why I picked steel.
"It was something I felt I had to do and have been doing it ever since so it was obviously the right decision," Ms Mallinson said.
She has exhibited at Sculpture Bermagui eight times since 2011, where she won the Cox prize five times, and last year exhibited at Sydney's world famous Sculpture by the Sea.
Ms Mallinson loves the physicality of sculpting and testing her limits.
"All my sculptures are curved so it is tricky to work with and clamp down but I love seeing those lines develop all the way up the sculpture.
"I guess that's what I'm really into," she said.
She works as much as possible from the small workshop at her South Pambula home, plasma cutting steel sheets, rolling and welding.
For larger works she uses a workshop in Bodalla and a fabricator in Queanbeyan.
International recognition
Ms Mallinson said sculpting is very insular and there would be no point doing it without exhibiting her work and getting people's opinions.
"You have to be brave at the beginning and open yourself up to all sorts of criticism," she said.
"I keep thinking everyone else is better than me but I enjoy it so much. It is my life and my passion."
Exhibiting at Sculpture by the Sea was "fantastic" because it opened her work to many more people.
Her exhibit was purchased by an international collector for his private collection in Queenstown, New Zealand.
England's Reading University tracked her down for a $1million 21-metre tall commission but it never went ahead due to COVID.
Her latest commission will open on February 15 for Lendlease's Calderwood Valley development west of Shellharbour and she will feature on Channel 7's Better Homes and Gardens on March 3.
Sculpture Bermagui runs from March 11-19.
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