AN artist from Bratton Clovelly has used her talents to create the trophies for a prestigious wildlife competition.

Sculptor Nick Mackman has made the trophies for the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, which is run by the BBC Wildlife Magazine and the Natural History Museum.

Nick creates one-off ceramic animal sculptures.  Her work has been widely exhibited and features in a number of important private collections.  She has accepted other commissions including from British Airways.

She received 'Highly Commended' awards for two of her pieces at the 2011 Wildlife Artist of the Year competition earlier this year.

For the trophies Nick sculpted the creatures featured in the winning photographs. It is the thirteenth year Nick has been involved in the competition. They were presented to the winners at a ceremony on October 19.

Nick said: 'To make this year's trophies, the subject matter required a lot of research.

'I asked myself questions like what would be typical behaviour for the birds, what poses would be beautiful and yet can be recreated in clay and be of the right dimensions.

'Structural issues needed to be addressed, thin long legs had to be made with steel thread and worked on post firing. Many hours went into each piece as each feather was modelled individually.

'I was particularly pleased with the oystercatcher as he really looked like he was walking across the plinth, one toe actually grabbing the edge of it.'