Play, Creativity and Wildlife Sculpture with Hamish Mackie

Today, Lucy Branch talks to Hamish Mackie,  brilliant contemporary wildlife sculptor who has works all over the UK including Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Cornwall and London as well as abroad. He recently won The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Fountains with The Goodman’s Fields Horses sculptures in London. His work captures the personalities of all kinds of wildlife and no animal escapes his interest from owls to tigers,  hares boxing to camels.  Hamish discusses his creative journey and how he became a professional sculptor, his inspiration for his work and his love of bronze. Join us and BE INSPIRED BY SCULPTURE.  You can find images of Hamish Mackie's work and a transcription of the interview at https://sculpturevulture.co.uk If you are looking for your next great read, please consider one of my novels which you can find out more about at Sculpture Vulture. This podcast was brought to you by Antique Bronze Snippet from the interview: Lucy: Have you always been creative? Hamish: Yeah, I have. I grew up on a farm in Cornwall so early in my life I was always outdoors doing things on the farm, which was actually quite creative and practical. I used to make endless camps in the hay barn and that type of thing. Always doing things with my hands, life on the farm was full of creativity. It was great fun. Lucy: So it was a real outdoorsy, a kind of Gerald Durrell experience. Hamish: Yeah. Mum used to have a bell that meant it was either time to eat or time to go to bed. That used to be rung outside when it was time to come in. Lucy: That's fantastic. I need one of those. Though my children would just ignore me. Hamish: We've taken it up here. We've got one in the house instead of screaming at the children. It's good. Lucy: Brilliant. So was there a creative aspect like art or drawing that went alongside all the playing and things like that? Hamish: There was to a degree. I was lucky to have a really inspiring art teacher when I was young. I've never been particularly into words and English, but I've always been creative and I've always loved making things. My art teacher at school was very supportive of that. To the extent that when I was about 14, I made a little cow head out of wax and cast it in lead myself over an outdoor fire. I don't think health and safety would agree with it nowadays. So yeah, I had always enjoyed making things and I was surrounded by wildlife and animals on the farm so there was always lots of early inspiration. Lucy: But it wasn't your mum doing anything at home of that ilk? Or a family member that showed you the way? Hamish: Weirdly no, not really. Dad was in the army and then a farmer. Mum isn't a painter or anything. My grandfather was quite creative, he was always making things but that certainly wasn't considered the norm. I think a lot of our great grandparents' generation would have sketched and drawn and made things in the evenings when they weren't watching telly. Other than that, no, there's no history of it in the family. But my brother is also doing it so that's another weird one.