Jasper Leadbeater went to Edinburgh University because he was expected to. He asked to study art there and was told the same thing. He left before finishing to make it the job instead. The first piece came in 2014.

Spent 12-bore cartridges are gathered after shoots across Britain. Each brass head is cleaned and set, head out, into a hexagonal field. Over the brass he lays stencils he has drawn and cut by hand, one layer for each tone, lightest first, until the face surfaces from the metal.

The headstamps and primers stay legible beneath the paint, so the object never disappears into the image. That is the point of the work: an object of force, made quiet, carrying a face.

Represented by Smolensky Gallery, Manchester. Exhibiting at The Palm Beach Show, February 2027. Ten percent of Country Life sales go to Race Against Dementia.

Commissions are welcome, including pieces made from your own cartridges.