In 1995 I was approached by Border Fine Arts; a renowned figurine manufacturing company sited in Langholm on the Scottish border, to sculpt a few small animal pieces. That began a 15 year period of working for them and for County Artists, both as a freelance sculptor and as a paid employee.
Over the years I sculpted many pieces and especially animals, but I became known for my cattle pieces. I sculpted many of the breed studies of the more well know breeds for Border Fine Arts and my favourite was a limited edition piece of a Charolais bull.
To be able to produce an accurate 3 dimensional piece you firstly need to take photographs of a good example of the breed; the more information you have on your subject, then hopefully, the better your finished piece! This involved me finding local farmers with very good animals to photograph, and who could also then look at the piece throughout the project with their expert eye so that I finally produced a sculpture of the animal they were all striving to breed.
I once visited a farm and was taken by LandRover to a field of Charolais cows with calves at foot, which I was going to photograph. Charolais’ are quite big cattle; about 5 foot to the shoulder and are particularly protective of their young. The farmer told me to leave the vehicular door open, not to look at the animals directly, and to run very fast if they started charging! I’d never met this man before, but I was clinging on to him…as he had a cattle prod!
The things I do for my art…
This is a link to my justkirsty11 Pinterest board and shows a few of the pieces I sculpted for Border Fine Arts and for Country Artists.
