Outdoor willow sculptures exhibition opens at Rievaulx Terrace (From York Press)

Outdoor willow sculptures exhibition opens at Rievaulx Terrace

9:49am Thursday 19th July 2012 in News

A life-size outdoor exhibition of willow sculptures has opened at a North Yorkshire country park.

Artist Emma Stothard, one of the country’s leading sculptors, is behind the exhibition at the National Trust’s Rievaulx Terrace near Helmsley.

Deer, hares, pheasants, pigs and horses are among the sculptures on show against the backdrop of the estate’s woodland, views and temples.

Clare Fletcher, property operations manager, said: “Rievaulx is a perfect backdrop, as well as inspiration for Emma’s works, and we are thrilled to have such a fantastic exhibition on show, which I’m sure will delight visitors to the terrace.”

Emma’s work is shown all over the world. She famously created a large-scale sculpture of the Prince of Wales’ Jack Russell, Tigga, for his Highgrove estate.

At the centre of the Rievaulx Terrace exhibition is the Mare, a scuplture woven in steel wire and then galvanised. A film showing the making of the sculpture can be seen in the basement of the Ionic Temple.

The horse was chosen as Thomas Duncombe and his friends would have arrived by horse and carriage onto the Terrace from nearby Helmsley in the eighteenth century.

Explaining why horses have almost become her signature work, Emma said: “I find their strength, power and character very inspiring.

“Working with willow helps me to capture all that. It’s the natural medium for a natural subject.”

The exhibition runs until November 4.