English alabaster was once famed throughout Europe but is no longer mined, which makes the work of contemporary sculptor Vivien Whitaker Arbs - now being exhibited at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield - important both artistically and historically.

For the last decade, the Derbyshire-based artist has worked exclusively in the translucent, delicately-coloured alabaster, producing ‘direct carving’ pieces that owe much to the influence of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.

But with the closure of mines in South Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire her days as an English alabaster sculptor are over. Having bought up the last of the material and transformed it in her Barlow workshop Vivien has now been forced to switch to the less translucent white Italian marble.

Much of Vivien’s alabaster work is held in private collections but she is also keen to have pieces in the public domain, which is why she recently donated two sculptures to the LBT.

She explained: “I feel very privileged to have found alabaster and been able to work the last pieces and that’s why I want pieces in public collections, so that it can be appreciated and remembered. I want people to be able to see the last of the English alabaster.”

Vivien’s donation of Daydreaming and 60 Second Sculpture came about through her friendship with Victoria Firth, director of the LBT, and the sculptures will be displayed in the theatre and at other local venues as part of a major Arts Council project to improve engagement with the arts in North Kirklees.

A former academic in social psychology at the Sheffield Hallam University, Vivien began her love affair with English alabaster after seeing some being worked back in 2002 while she was studying part-time for a degree in fine art.

But it wasn’t until 2007 that she gave up her ‘day job’ to concentrate on art - finally fulfilling a dream that she’d had for many years.

“One of my daydreams had been to become an artist but it was only in my middle years that I decided to do something about it”, she says. “And it was only then it occurred to me that one of the sources of my daydreaming was my great-grandfather who was a stone mason in Burnley.”

Vivien works by ‘listening’ to the stones she is about to work on. She explained: “I work with the stone to see what it wants to become. Daydreaming started off life as a very battered piece of stone in the back of a shed at Loughborough University. I was doing my PhD, which I never finished, and it was the pinkness of the stone that suggested skin tone to me. The front is a dreaming face and the back is an awake face.

“The gold leaf is a reference to the Middle Ages when English alabaster was very popular, particularly after the Black Death when people were so relieved that they were still alive that they commissioned a lot of sculpture for churches.

“If you look at tombs in churches that are alabaster they can look a little strange because the stone masons weren’t following the veining as I do. They were using alabaster because it was soft and easily worked. In the Middle Ages it was painted in bright colours and had gold leaf on it.”

Vivien’s 60 Second Sculpture comprises five small polished pieces of alabaster that can be arranged by the viewer. She sees her work as hands-on.

Her direct carving technique, which means working without a plan, allows her to create organic pieces that exploit the natural features of the stone.

“I was never interested in creating things of beauty,” she says. “It is terribly restrictive to think of art in terms of only creating beauty.”

Nevertheless, many of her works have a natural beauty because of the quality of the marbled stone she uses and the smooth, flowing forms she releases.

Vivien’s works can be seen in the LBT foyer until early November, after which they will move to different areas of the building.