An Ashby artist has been forced to think small, rather than big, after he was hit by the Coronavirus lockdown.

And that has seen him have regular deliveries of cases of beer for his latest project.

The current situation has presented itself with many problems not least for Matthew Warburton of Aluminiumart.

He has been prevented from showing his work at craft and art events across the country until at least October 2020.

This means customers are unable to see his normal aluminium sculpture work, which is in itself a little different, and preventing sales.

But lockdown made Matthew think outside of the box.

In fact, to create sales he thought of small postal boxes and what could be packaged in them and be posted easier and more cost effectively.

He already produces large planished and polished aluminium maps of UK and Ireland so the transition was to miniaturise them.

Having created a map of Wales, he approached craft beer brewer, Felinfoel Brewery in Llanelli, South Wales, to be the sole supplier - using their range of cans as the raw material for the maps.

Mike Francis, Assistant General Manager at the brewery said: "We are delighted to see our can range being sampled and converted into mounted art - as the oldest brewery in Wales, and the first to can beer in Europe, we certainly have the heritage and it's lovely to work in conjunction with Matthew to see our can range being utilised."

A case was sent but to protect the cans as much as possible they needed to be sent full, to keep up the internal pressure.

The first delivery of 48 cans needed to be emptied, prepared, cut, mounted and returned as pictures to the brewery.

Fortunately for Matthew he has some very willing neighbours who could turn them around quickly so that he did not have to drink them all himself!

Matthew can be seen returning from town, or back from a run with an empty can or two,

Then they are washed and prepared for further artwork as he has a range of products and more underway.

Now his range of 'Mini Editions' are vehicles encased in a small jar with a unique background.

Starting with the British classics, the range is just beginning.

There is no need to contact Matthew to volunteer emptying cans as he has a long list already but you can support by visiting his website Aluminiumart Framed Wales Map