Sculptor Anthony Heywood has seen his latest work featured in a world renowned open-air show at Bondi Beach in Australia, which is one of the world's top sun-soaked tourist spots.

The former pupil at Golden Flatts and Brierton schools, in Hartlepool, unveiled his 7ft-high elephant sculpture at the world-acclaimed Sculpture by the Sea Bondi 2009 show.

The show saw 114 outdoor sculptures visited by more than 500,000 people in a tour stretching from Tamarana Bay to Bondi Beach, around six miles from Sydney.

The dad-of-three, who grew up in Hartlepool and is now principal lecturer in sculpture at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury, created the piece using a new technique that allows him cast household items into unique shapes.

The 56-year-old, who lived in Pickering Grove and attended Hartlepool College of Art, said: "I was the only British artist selected for the show so I'm very proud."

Anthony, who still has family living in Hartlepool, added: "The catalyst for the piece was a television news item about the indiscriminate slaughter of elephants simply for their ivory tusks.

"I find this unpredictability very attractive as it is a metaphor for life and how changeable and fragile our existence is.

"I wanted to use materials which also reflected the fragility of life.
We surround ourselves in objects all of which have different values, be they aesthetic, intrinsic, sentimental and of cultural value."

The recognition comes a year after Anthony created a 6ft-tall horse from jewellery, television sets, computers, handbags, vacuum cleaners for a BBC2 dramatisation of the book Dustbin Baby, which starred Dakota Blue Richards and Juliet Stevenson.

In 2001, Anthony unveiled a 1.3 tonne 36ft-long spitfire made entirely of paper and in 2004 his 21ft-tall elephant made almost entirely of old television sets was unveiled in Sydney, Australia.

Anthony, who left the town when he studied at university in Newcastle and went on to work in the south, has now been invited to take part in an international show taking place at sites in Europe and Australia in 2011 where he will show more of his animal sculptures.