From 7th October there is a treat for lovers of art and animals in London, Britain’s foremost wildlife sculptor Hamish Mackie will stage a major solo exhibition at The Cork Street Gallery in Mayfair. He makes the most beautiful wildlife sculptures.

Mackie has previously completed bespoke commissions for organisations including Barclays Private Bank and Merrill Lynch as well as individuals such as Dame Vivien Duffield and Charles Saatchi. Art historian and critic Edward Lucie-Smith has praised Mackie as “master of a virtuoso technique, in a technical tradition that dates back to Rodin. What Rodin did with the human body, Mackie applies to animal forms.” The lifelike quality he captures in his sculptures is attained through careful observation, often involving the artist working from life.

His work has taken him to a variety of destinations to see animals in their natural habitats, including stalking deer in the Highlands, tracking cheetahs in Namibia and watching penguins in Antarctica. Whilst there he creates studies or even originals in clay or wax, having to work with deft and spontaneous gestures in sometimes inhospitable conditions. This impressionistic quality is translated into the finished bronze works, in which the motions of his hands and even fingerprints are still visible, lending the works vitality and dynamism.

This October, a selection of almost fifty new works by the artist will be the subject of a major solo exhibition. Through the show, Mackie will help to raise funds and awareness for charities including The Tusk Trust and The Countryside Alliance.