Seen Unseen by Helen Costello

Since childhood, nature has always intrigued me. I have spent my youth and working life on farms.  I loved the farm, its animals, bringing in the cows every day to be milked, working the horses; observing the variety of animals and plants on the land.  Each horse or cow in the herd the same… but so different.  The beauty in these similarities and differences inspire me to show these to the viewer to help them to see and feel the magnificence of the ordinary and everyday wildlife and farm animals that surround me…to draw attention to behaviours that otherwise might otherwise go unnoticed. Working from personal observations, I research the details of my ideas further on the internet and in books.  I then draw rough sketches and begin hand building each character individually in clay.  By hand building the animal in clay, I am exploring their faces in detail while considering the interaction and sense of soul to soul contact between us, giving the viewer the same opportunity.