Hamish Mackie and Pascal Chesneau at ballYnahinch
We at The Whitethorn Gallery are privileged to present this exhibition of hamish mackie's and pascal chesneau's glorious sculptures in the beautiful surroundings of the walled gardens of ballynahinch castle hotel.
About Hamish Mackie
British wildlife sculptor Hamish Mackie has had the privilege of observing wildlife in many corners of the world first hand. His bronze sculptures capture instinctive moments of animal behavior but are his own interpretation, not merely photographic representations. Hamish manages to convey the inner core, strength and grace of his subject. In 2014, Hamish won a major public art commission to create 6 life size horses running loose through a plaza in London, which were revealed to critical acclaim the following year.
About Pascal Chesneau
Born in 1967 in Brittany, France, Pascal Chesneau is a completely self taught sculptor. He begins by modelling his subjects in paper which allows him to retain a lightness of form, then using flat sheets he translates them to metal thus minimising the material but using just enough to convey the savage power and strength of his subjects as well as the terrible fragility and uncertainty that is their present day reality. Pascal is a lovely unassuming individual. Salt of the earth, he puts his phenomenal success as much down to luck as to skill – but it is the skill that has put him where he is today.
The grey wolf is one of the the most iconic creatures on the planet, an apex predator with a long history of interactions with humans, immortalised in mythology. “As part of my research, I read Jamie and Jim Dutcher’s Running with Wolves, an amazing insight into their story with the Sawtooth pack. The book shares a heartfelt passion for these incredible animals and their complex social structure.” – Hamish Mackie.
The sculptures have been designed so that they can be installed in a number of ways. Either directly to the ground, on a boulder or plinth, or stepping over a log etc, to really make them fit into the environment they are placed.
The red fox was the first animal known to use magnetic sense to hunt, and the first to use magnetic fields to estimate distance rather than direction or position.
Fawn, so sweet and pure, are natural wonders of the forest. With their quiet and elusive nature, deer tend to be very protective of their young, but in order to survive, they may have to leave their fawn by themselves for a few hours to go in search of food. Fawn depend on their mothers to grow and thrive in their natural habitats.
Quick and graceful, the Roe Deer lives in woodland and is mostly active at dawn and dusk. They are elegant nimble creatures, and when alarmed, will flee with a bounding gait. Small and shy, Roe Deer are not as sociable as other breeds, living in small groups. As ruminant animals, they spend long periods lying down chewing the cud between feeding times.
The jumping fox is actually a hunting technique called ‘mousing’ and relies on the earths magnetic field. Foxes strongly prefer to jump in a north-easterly direction and have a higher success rate when doing so.
The doe will rarely be found near her fawn for the first few weeks of its life because her presence may attract predators. After the fawn has matured enough to keep up with its mother they will spend the next year together before the fawn establishes it’s own home range nearby.
