Muskoka Artist Emma Lee Fleury | Handmade Clay Animal Sculptures in Canada – Spring 2026 Collection: A Gathering of Earthlings

There’s something deeply grounding about shaping small beings slowly by hand.

The Spring 2026 Collection: A Gathering of Earthlings emerged through quiet observation, instinct, and a deep connection to the natural world. This body of work explores handmade clay animal sculptures as emotional forms – small beings that exist somewhere between realism, memory, folklore, and imagination.

Over time, bears, owls, rabbits, baby cows, snails, fungi, and woodland - inspired creatures slowly gathered across my studio table, each one forming naturally through process rather than strict planning. Most of these pieces were never sketched beforehand. They revealed themselves gradually through texture, movement, and intuition, eventually carrying their own distinct personality and presence.

I often refer to these sculptures as “earthlings” because they don’t feel entirely separate from us. They hold emotional qualities that mirror human experiences – curiosity, softness, vulnerability, tension, stillness. They exist somewhere between observed wildlife and imagined beings, shaped equally through nature and feeling.

As a multidisciplinary artist based in Muskoka, Ontario, a lot of my work is rooted in environmental themes and the relationship between humans and the Earth. Through painting, earth art installations, sculpture, writing, and music, I’m constantly exploring that connection and trying to translate it into physical form.

While some areas of my practice lean more directly into environmental tension and climate change, this collection moves through a gentler side of that conversation. These sculptures are about reconnection. They’re about slowing down enough to remember that we are part of nature, not separate from it.

Living in Muskoka has deeply shaped the work. The forests, wetlands, lakes, moss, wildlife, fungi, and changing seasons all become embedded into the textures and atmosphere of the sculptures themselves. There’s a quiet energy within natural spaces that I’m always trying to hold onto and bring back into the studio.

Working with clay feels very different from painting for me. Painting often captures atmosphere and distance, while sculpture feels physical and intimate. Holding these small forms in my hands while shaping them creates a direct relationship to the work. Every fingerprint, crack, texture, and imperfection becomes part of the final piece and its story.

The creatures themselves often emerge unexpectedly. Sometimes a sculpture begins as one thing and slowly transforms into another through the process of making it. That unpredictability feels important to me. Nature itself works that way – constantly shifting, adapting, evolving, and rebuilding.

A lot of contemporary life feels disconnected from the natural world and from slower forms of observation. Creating these handmade clay animal sculptures has become a way of resisting that pace. The work asks for patience. It asks for attention. It asks to be felt rather than rushed through.

The Spring 2026 Collection: A Gathering of Earthlings became a gathering not only of creatures, but of ideas – environmental awareness, emotional presence, imagination, and the quiet magic that still exists within the natural world if we allow ourselves to notice it.

These pieces are small reminders of connection.

Small beings shaped slowly by hand, carrying fragments of the forests, landscapes, and living systems that inspired them.

Muskoka Artist Emma Lee Fleury | Handmade Clay Animal Sculptures in Canada – Spring 2026 Collection: A Gathering of Earthlings