Alexander Hamilton
“After forty years of realising concepts for other people I have at last found time to create for myself, and am thoroughly enjoying the process of playing with ideas and techniques. What I make, I make for me, and I am always delighted when someone else shares my vision. I have sold some very odd stuff to unlikely people, except of course that they are really discerning art lovers!”
Alex trained as a properties maker at a free-lance studio supplying mostly London’s West End theatres and major tours. In 1966 he became head of the Props Department at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where for some 16 years or so he designed and made props, and trained props makers and stage managers.
Having been head-hunted to set up a props making department at Pebble Mill Television Studios, Birmingham, he later left the BBC to start a props-making studio, with his wife Polly. Pollex Props was based in Sutton Coldfield, supplying props, costumes and art works to theatres, television and film companies throughout the UK and overseas.
Firebrand was added to Pollex Props in 1993, enlarging the range of services on offer to include flaming torches and special fire effects, which are used by theatre companies all over the world. Alex also has a teaching diploma and has given illustrated practical lectures in props-making to college and university drama departments.
Since moving to Argyll Alex has had the opportunity to develop his interests and has become a successful artist. Having spent so long realising other designers’ ideas, in recent years he has thoroughly enjoyed exploring texture and form, and the range of techniques acquired during forty years as a props maker informs his idiosyncratic portrayal of the world around him. His fine art interpretation of the environment ranges from impressionist landscape through collage, and assemblages, to wood and metal sculpture.
Alex trained as a properties maker at a free-lance studio supplying mostly London’s West End theatres and major tours. In 1966 he became head of the Props Department at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where for some 16 years or so he designed and made props, and trained props makers and stage managers.
Having been head-hunted to set up a props making department at Pebble Mill Television Studios, Birmingham, he later left the BBC to start a props-making studio, with his wife Polly. Pollex Props was based in Sutton Coldfield, supplying props, costumes and art works to theatres, television and film companies throughout the UK and overseas.
Firebrand was added to Pollex Props in 1993, enlarging the range of services on offer to include flaming torches and special fire effects, which are used by theatre companies all over the world. Alex also has a teaching diploma and has given illustrated practical lectures in props-making to college and university drama departments.
Since moving to Argyll Alex has had the opportunity to develop his interests and has become a successful artist. Having spent so long realising other designers’ ideas, in recent years he has thoroughly enjoyed exploring texture and form, and the range of techniques acquired during forty years as a props maker informs his idiosyncratic portrayal of the world around him. His fine art interpretation of the environment ranges from impressionist landscape through collage, and assemblages, to wood and metal sculpture.