HERE’S a sneak preview of Galashiels-born sculptress Angela Hunter’s latest piece of civic art.

Crafted by the 65-year-old at her Innerleithen studio, the resin model of a happy schoolboy heading for a holiday “Doon the Watter” will, once cast in bronze, take pride of place in the recently revamped railway station in the Ayrshire resort of Wemyss Bay.

The as yet unnamed statue will be a companion piece for another Hunter creation, “Wee Annie” – an evocative bronze of a little girl sitting on a suitcase in the neighbouring Firth of Clyde ferry port of Gourock.

Like so many people in Inverclyde, the Friends of Wemyss Bay Station, who have commissioned the new work following a £4m upgrade of the A-listed station, have fallen in love with Wee Annie since she was unveiled two years ago.

“Annie is such a wonderful statue,” said Nancy Cameron, chairperson of the 200-strong friends group. “We contacted Angela and asked for a brother for Wemyss Bay Station and we’re delighted she has accepted the challenge.”

Speaking to the Border Telegraph after her model was delivered to the foundry this week, Angela said: “I’m proud and honoured to have been asked to have my work in such a wonderful station. It really is a spectacular place.

“I can’t believe how popular Wee Annie has been in Gourock. People have taken her to their hearts and that means a lot for a civic space artist.”

When unveiled in the spring of next year year, the Wemyss Bay statue will be Angela’s third project in Inverclyde, having last year completed her memorial to the eight local people who were killed in Greenock during the so-called Radical War of 1820.

Her other notable commissions include the five bronze penguins in Dundee City Centre (2005), the immense bronze Turning the Bull which graces the civic space in the Heart of Hawick (2009) and the bust of legendary rugby commentator Bill McLaren at Murrayfield (2013).

Born in Galashiels, Angela Hunter (nee Patterson) worked a sewing machinist at Dorward’s, a photographic assistant at Waverley Studios and a lab assistant at Bepi Electronics after leaving Galashiels Academy.

In 1994 she enrolled on an art course at Borders College in Hawick and, in 1999, she graduated with a BA Hons degree in sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art.