Sculpture Commissions

Working with Hamish

Goodman's Fields Horses

In 2014, Hamish Mackie won a major public art commission for the Berkeley Homes Goodman’s Fields development in the City of London. Goodman’s Fields Horses are six life and quarter size horses running loose through the pedestrianised plaza. 

It was a huge site-specific project involving architects, developers, landscape designers, concrete specialists, lighting and fountain engineers. The original planning was all done in drawings, a language that Hamish understands thanks to his degree in design. 

During the course of a year, he collaborated with Lockbund Foundry to create a new foundry big enough for the job that required over a kilometre of steel for the armatures, six tonnes of clay, one tonne of silicone rubber and four tonnes of bronze. He also worked closely with Ustigate Ltd who helped create a system of strategically placed water jets to suggest that the bronze horses are galloping through water.

The sculptures were unveiled in 2015 to critical acclaim and the following year, won the Public Monuments and Sculptures Association’s Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Fountains. 

Household Cavalry Charger

Hamish was commissioned by the Household Cavalry in 2015, to make a sculpture for the officer’s mess commemorating the Queen’s new Standard.

The Household Cavalry of the British Army, formerly The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals, have a mounted regiment whose task it is to carry out traditional ceremonial duties. Every ten years they are awarded new Standards (regimental flags) by the monarch in a ceremony which incorporates a Service of Consecration and a presentation on Horse Guards Parade. Hamish’s sculpture of a Household Cavalry charger shows the horse galloping at full tilt and the officer holding the Standard aloft. 

Cotswolds Distillery Pheasant

To coincide with the launch of the Cotswold Distillery’s first whisky in 2017, founder Dan Szor commissioned a bronze sculpture of their pheasant  logo to stand as a centrepiece in the landscaped garden at the front of their headquarters and shop.

Sculpting the logo into bronze meant Hamish didn’t have to design the composition as such, however, there were questions of height and scale to consider. The pheasant was going to greet the 30,000 guests that visit the distillery each year, as well as the team who work there every day, so its orientation was also important.

Hamish made the pheasant sculpture slightly larger than life size, on a bronze base of flattened malting barley. For the plinth, Hamish collaborated with Goode Stone Supplies Ltd in Hook Norton, who have worked with him on numerous projects over the years. The Hornton Blue stone complements the grey shale and natural tones of the garden, the mellow Cotswold stone of the building, and the earthy coppery patina of the bronze pheasant.

The Enfer Project

In 2021, Hamish was approached by a medical testing laboratory, Enfer Medical Ltd., to design a new corporate sculpture for their headquarters. The brief was fairly open, but the concept had to be based on the Enfer Logo. Initial ideas were narrowed down to one which was developed from drawings via a computer-generated blender model, ready to build.

“For the final concept, I envisaged the Enfer logo in stainless steel, bent to form a structure pinpointing a ball representing a virus or cell. One side of the form is etched with a DNA double helix and the other with a DNA barcode pattern. As my signature, the top of the black granite oval plinth is engraved with my Chromosome 6 DNA code (which contains over 100 genes related to immune response and how we fight viruses and infections), obviously unique to me.”

The sculpture is protected by 24 bollards designed to look like vaccine vials, each topped with 1 of the 24 chromosomes, and arranged in an outer oval around the sculpture. Every other bollard has a side light to light the sculpture. The floor is landscaped with black and grey cobbles delineating the Enfer logo with the plinth neatly fitting within the internal oval.

The pictures below show Hamish’s initial plan and CGI of the finished concept. The project is ready to build and is now awaiting planning approval and funding.

Swifts for NHS Royal United Hospitals, Bath

Hamish was delighted to be asked to create a sculpture for the new Dyson Cancer Centre at the NHS Royal United Hospitals (RUH), Bath.

Made possible by the generosity of a private donor in memory of his wife, ‘Swifts’ depicts a larger than life size pair of swifts in flight. Mounted on a limestone plinth, the sculpture will form a focal point for the inpatients’ courtyard on the first floor at the new centre, which opens in the autumn of 2023.

The use of natural light, external spaces, greenery and artwork are all known to have a positive effect on healing and overall patient experience, and have been incorporated into the design of the centre, based around a land, water and sky theme. Hamish felt swifts were the perfect bird for the site-specific commission, representing freedom, hope and joy – a real celebration of life.

Sculpture Collection

Hamish has a substantial range of bronze sculptures for sale, and in other materials, all of which are listed on this website. If you see something you like that is labelled as sold out, please get in touch with Hamish directly to discuss a private commission.