Anyone remember the controversy over The Minotaur and the Hare sculpture in Cheltenham's Promenade? Daniel Poutney caught up with its creator Sophie Ryder, whose work is the subject of a new exhibition in Bath

S ophie Ryder's cavernous studio is a world of plaster dust, steel wire, old bits of machinery, scraps of paper and giant works of art. And dogs – lots and lots of dogs.

The artist is always surrounded by her family of lurchers. As you enter her beautiful home in Winson, one of the Cotswolds' most picturesque villages, you are mobbed by the puppies Billy, Pedro and Elsie with their grandmother Tiger and a neighbour's chihuahua bringing up the rear.

Mum Shadow can be found curled up in a blanket inside the studio space grabbing a bit of peace and quiet.

"They are just the best type of dog to have around you," Sophie says as she ushers them back into the kitchen and the warmth of the Aga.

"I've had lurchers for 30 years and every few years we breed them."

Sophie was the youngest student since Turner to attend the Royal Academy Schools. And each day she cycled into college with a particularly large dog running alongside her.

"The first time we went in I was told that the school had a no pets policy," she remembers.

"I told them that the dog was my model so they agreed she could stay. Then I had to keep painting dogs to keep up the pretence."

Dogs still play an important role in her work, whether she chooses to create sculptures out of bronze, wire or plaster, or pictures that are painted or woven.

But the most distinctive forms in her pieces are human figures wearing masks, specifically the minotaur and the hare.

"I like the human body but I don't want to create sculptures of recognisable people," the 46-year- old explains.

"I prefer that people read their own stories into the works. So although the figures are 100 per cent human, they are disguised by their masks."

It was 1997 when The Minotaur and the Hare was installed on the Promenade in Cheltenham as part of Sophie's exhibition at the art gallery.

The 10ft sculpture was due to be removed until the people of Cheltenham launched a campaign to keep it.

The town was split between those who wanted the bronze figures to continue observing shoppers for years to come, and those who didn't feel it belonged among the Regency buildings.

After a fundraising project which saw art-lovers dropping 20p pieces into money boxes throughout the town and successful negotiation of the council's planning process, the work was purchased.

"Most of the people who were against the permanent installation have now come to love the piece," Sophie says.

"Next to the minotaur has become a meeting place in town and you see people having their pictures taken by it."

There is also a large outdoor element to her new show, which is at the Victoria Gallery in Bath until June 10. Sculptures will be on display in public places, including the abbey, during the exhibition.

It will include many new pieces, some of which Sophie has been working on for more than six months, such as the enormous steel wire sculpture Curled Up which had to be specially made with the dimensions of the doors of the gallery in mind.

Having grown up and studied in London, Sophie also met her photographer husband Harry Scott in the capital. They were married when she was 17 and later moved to Gloucestershire to be nearer his family.

The couple have two daughters – Nell is a 17-year-old jazz singer and Maud is a 19-year-old student in Bath.

It was around the time of Maud's birth that Sophie and Harry bought five acres of land, a barn and a disused cowshed in Winson.

They lived in a caravan on the land while Harry built their house and Sophie turned the outbuildings into her studios.

From the former cowshed, Sophie has created works that have been exhibited in solo shows across the world and the buyers of her pieces are usually American. "In the States, it's quite regular for people with money to invest in art," Sophie says.

"People with big gardens will buy sculptures. There is a greater respect for art in the USA.

"In England, money tends to be invested in antiques and there is a perception that being an artist isn't a proper job."

For Sophie not only is it a proper job, it is one that takes up almost all her time.

But she admits that even if collectors had no interest in her work, she would still do it.

"I don't do commissions and I've never wanted to do art with shock value just because it might generate a few sales," she says.

"I do my work totally for me and luckily some people buy it. It's not something I do for money or just because I enjoy it like a hobby. I just couldn't live my life without it."

Visit www.sophieryder.org