Otters Playing Underwater - 2024

Bronze, Signed Hamish Mackie
Numbered Edition of 12
Dated 2024

Size: 208cm high (82″) (unmounted) x 103cm long (40.5″) x 50cm wide (19.5″)

Sculptures can be shipped world wide at cost, no VAT payable on exports outside the EU.

£52,000 inc VAT

Otters are another of my favourite subjects. I have such a passion for otters that my youngster daughter is named Otterlie! Humans have always felt a bond with these intelligent animals. They appear in the folklore and mythology of many different cultures including Norse, Asian and Native American.

Henry Williamson’s famous book Tarka the Otter (1927) and Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water (1960) have become much-loved classics. The award-winning 2024 documentary Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story by Charlie Hamilton James is a more recent true story about one man’s relationship with a wild otter on Shetland.

This life size sculpture depicts a mother otter being mobbed by playful cubs while swimming underwater. While I was on the Isle of Mull, I kept my eyes open for otters, but didn’t see any. They can be extremely shy creatures.

I did find an incredible piece of ancient Caledonian tree root washed up on the side of a Scottish loch. It was the perfect shape to mount this sculpture on but just not quite large enough. I ended up sculpting a bigger replica out of clay. I gas torched the wet surface to blow off fragments of clay to create a lovely worn and weathered look. It is exactly the type of thing you can easily find underwater, now cast into bronze.

This sculpture can be placed inside or out, including on water.

Sculpture in the Making

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Otters – 2018

Bronze, Numbered edition of 12

Highland Goats – 2017

Bronze, Numbered edition of 12

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24 Mar, 2019

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