The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.

Molly, the Sculptor’s Muse

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Helen Denerley is a well-known Scottish sculptor whose works are animal inspired. One of her favourite muses is her lurcher-mix called Molly.

Helen was born at Roslin, near Edinburgh. She studied in Aberdeen at Gray’s School of Art, 1973-7. Working mainly in metal, she uses farming tools, industrial machinery and scrap.

She has exhibited regularly since the late 1970s, and is a founder member of Aberdeen Community Arts Association, 1982.

Her recent work includes sculpture for the Princess Royal Trust Carers Centre, Aberdeen (1994), and Millie (1999), which was modelled on her own horse and exhibited at the West of England Art Fair, Bath, 1999.

In 2001 she exhibited several animal sculptures in Glasgow’s Merchant Square, including four Lurchers, a Great Dane and an Iguana.

It’s not every dog which can claim to have been admired in the finest art galleries in the land. But Molly, the lurcher from Aberdeenshire, isn’t just any dog. She owes her exotic good looks to her distinctive breeding - part Scottish Deerhound, part Irish Wolfhound, part Greyhound, part Norwegian Elkhound, part Collie and part Rottweiler - and her celebrity status to her owner, Helen Denerley, who creates extraordinary sculptures from farmyard junk.

Helen’s work includes life-sized wolves, birds, reptiles, camels, deer, sheep and big cats, but Molly is by far her most popular muse, figuring in several of her most celebrated sculptures.

“She had become quite a famous dog,” said Helen. “She has lots of attitude and so many great poses I could base hundreds of sculptures on her.”

“I like the idea that Molly might inspire children to go away and draw their own animals and look more closely at the nature around them,” she said.

Now aged five, Molly has been with Helen since she was a puppy. “She has a great character, and she was a very good rabbiter in her day - although now she’s getting a bit older and wiser she would rather just look at them than chase them.”

Molly isn’t the only creature in Helen’s life to feature in her work. She also takes inspiration from the chickens, cats and abundant wildlife around her rural studio at Strathdon.

Her surroundings are crucial to everything she creates - not only in the subjects of her sculptures, but in the materials she uses to construct her fanciful beasts.

Local farmers get in touch with her when they are throwing out old implements - sometimes items made by local blacksmiths or relics from the days when horses worked the land. She also visits scrap yards to pick up just the right piece of engine or machine part.

By basing her sculptures on the changing seasons and the animals, birds, plants and people around her home, she sees her work as breathing new life into old metal.

As her reputation has spread, so has demand for her unique creations. She now has sculptures on display around the world, from the 24ft giraffes that stand outside the Omni building in Edinburgh to a heavy metal horse installed in rural Japan.

But nothing gives her more pleasure than getting down to another design based on her dearest four-legged friend. “Molly is important to my work, but she’s also important to my life,” she said.

“She’s been my companion all this time, and when you get to know an animal as well as your dog, you get to recognise all its subtle changes of expression. I never get tired of looking at her.”

SuperWoof to Molly & Helen!

Awoof! Archibald Esq.

Posted 20 Jan 09