Helen Denerley

HELEN DENERLEY creates extarordinary sculpture using scrap metal. Born in Roslin, near Edinburgh, she studied in Aberdeen at Gray's School of Art from 1973 to 1977.  She has exhibited regularly since the late 1970s and has become known throughout the country with her sculptures in public places attracting much affection.  

She lives in rural Aberdeenshire, surrounded by wildlife.  Incorporating both new and scrap metal, she creates powerful images - generally of birds and animals - which both inspire and uplift.  These are beautifully crafted using pre-existing shapes and forms. She draws prolifically then creates her animals from her enormous scrap heap of redundant agricultural machinery, tools and old motor bikes, which find a new life in her lithe and expressive creatures. Her work ranges from delicately observed birds and insects to  monumental creatures including the much loved 24ft giant giraffes on Leith Walk in Edinburgh. 

Helen’s work is now widely recognized, resulting in world-wide commissions from Japan to Canada. She has an extraordinary skill, born from her sense of draughtsmanship and observation, creating these graceful creatures from the discarded flotsam of the age.  Her sculptures possess a vitality and animation which defy the very nature of the materials used.  Her smaller pieces have unusual grace and delicacy.