A YOUNG artist has hopped into the footsteps of a close friend after her rabbit sculptures were selected to be exhibited at a prestigious event in London.
The artwork of former Northallerton College student Hayley Stephenson will be on show at the Mall Galleries, in London, from March 11 to 21. Last year her friend Lois Ancell showed her painting On Ice, inspired by her brother’s plunge into freezing floodwater as he walked across Northallerton Golf Course. The work of Hayley, who left college last year, will be one of just 23 pieces nationally to have been chosen for exhibition, the result of an annual competition run by the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts in partnership with the Royal Society of British Artists. Backed by funding from the local NADFAS society Hambleton DFAS, Hayley and her family will travel down to London for a private viewing. Now training to be a veterinary nurse at Askham Bryan College, York, the 19-year-old chose rabbits to be the subject of her Modroc sculptures. “I just love the way they move, the way they bounce and frolic,” she said. “I liked the idea of them progressing in age, like a family. “I spent a lot of time developing my technique and getting the right material, including mud, glue, horsehair, concrete and masking tape. “But I can’t believe they chose me as there was some really amazing artwork being considered.” Hambleton Decorative and Fine Arts Society young arts representative Debbie Burrows said: “Her work was the first sculpture to be chosen from this region for the annual competition, which is very prestigious. “It’s an incredible coincidence that two former Northallerton College students have been chosen in consecutive years and that they are such close friends.” Northallerton College’s head of art Jean Lake added: “This is a great reward for the effort and dedication Hayley put into her work. She explored a lot of techniques and materials and the rabbits were just a fraction of the work she created here at college.”
