Red Deer Stag - 2012
“I remember a huge stag, coming into feed, walking past me no more than five meters away. How such a heavy animal can travel through the forest in total silence is a mystery to me. I was lying camouflaged behind a rock and I didn’t know it was coming from behind until it nearly trod on me.” (HM)
Famously immortalised in Landseer’s painting ‘Monarch of the Glen’, Hamish’s bronze Red Deer Stag sculpture also shows a proud male deer with fine antlers. During the rutting season, stags clash antlers in combat and roar to win mating rights over a harem of hinds. Despite their size and power, stags are stealthy and light on their feet as Hamish’s stag sculpture has captured.
VIDEO
THIS SCULPTURE IN THE MAKING
This stag sculpture, together with the Red Deer Hind, was made in the Highlands of Scotland. I spent a few mornings stalking with my camera on the hill and, thanks to our stalker, I managed to get close to a stag rounding up his hinds. Having researched and photographed these red deer, and while still fresh in my memory, I set up my tools outside the estate larder and sculpted both together.

