I've had several requests recently on how my commissions work. I think I need to have a little update of my website anyway but in the meantime I thought I would take the time to give you an overview of how a custom pet painting works should you trust me to bring your four-legged family to life and capture their unique personalities. Say Cheese : I work from photographs. If people are local to me (the North East) I am happy to help take photos of your pet but some of my clients live considerably further afield so photos is the best way to paint them. Sometimes people have one photo that they l ..read more

So there wasn't a way of making that title catchy...but hopefully this news won't be too disappointing. Earlier in the year Royal Mail upped their prices. Up until now I have been eating the costs for this however I have decided to make a couple of changes as all my costs are going up and as a small business I need to be realistic. One of the changes is that the price for small parcels has gone up to £4.50 in line with the increases. However, I have also reduced the price for medium parcels to the same price. That means if you are buying multiple items you won't be paying more for this, it wi ..read more

I really value all my amazing international customers but I have temporarily removed the option to ship outside of the UK from my website. This is due to a couple of reasons including price increases, new EU trade rules, codes and disruptions to international courier services. It is also partly because I have so many products of different weights. In the UK the weight parameters for different parcels are broader but when shipping abroad the price jumps significantly per 100g. The weight rules are confusing trying to marry rules that work for both the UK and abroad and a lot of the time intern ..read more

Good afternoon! I wanted to take the time to say a humungous thank you for all your support this year. Its been a strange one hasn't it! Back in March I had no idea what the year would hold for my little business and those of all the amazing people I know through the shows we would normally do this year. Having had my online store already set up has definitely been a bonus for me although I was blown away by how many people chose to support my business and buy my various wares. For anyone who has not met me in person I am a one-woman show. There is just me in the business and I am as far from ..read more

My grandad used to be a painter and decorator, he’s 90 years old and amazing. Recently he helped me decorate my son’s bedroom with a funky jungle wallpaper. When I started my business he gave me a lot of his old decorating materials including his enamelling and gilding tools. I’ve wanted to experiment with gold leaf since then but, as usual, time just ran away from me. I’ll be honest it wasn’t all straightforward. I accidentally bought the wrong gold size for my first set of bee’s and then had to very carefully paint over the mistakes with the new acrylic based size when it arrived. For all o ..read more

Recently I was delighted to be approached by a customer for a commission. It was going to be a wedding anniversary gift to his wife and they had commissioned a painting in the past so I was honoured that they wanted to add to the collection. The client wanted one or two hedgehogs in some oak leaves and acorns. To begin any commission I start with preparing a few ideas and sketches. Here are the ones I drew up for this painting. With all my commission work I also like to send progress shots so the customer can feel involved in the process and watch as their painting comes to life. The oak lea ..read more

This year I was delighted to be selected to take part in Elmer’s Great North Parade. After the success of the snowdog trail in 2016 and the phenomenal amount of money raised for St Oswald’s Hospice, I was keen to join the herd and paint an elephant to try and support this wonderful service. I admit my motives weren’t entirely charitable. I thoroughly enjoyed working on my snowdog. He presented a challenge of working on a 3D surface as well as forcing me to adapt materials to try and mimic my style which I am recognised for. You cannot use watercolours on a sculpture that is to go outdoors so ..read more

This week I have a work experience student from Biddick Academy working with me. Peter wants to run his own art business one day. As part of his experience I suggested he went to visit some of the other artists here at The Hearth to see what they get up to in their creative process and running their businesses. Here are his thoughts.... I’ve gone to visit the other artists in the studio that have been in this week to talk and see what they work with. Every artist is different with their own styles and materials that they use. It’s really interesting to see how differently each artists works. I ..read more

This week I have a work experience student from Biddick Academy working with me. Peter wants to run his own art business one day and is getting an overview of what that means with regards to my Jina Gelder Illustration. I thought it might be a good idea to let him take over social media for a little bit so here is one of a couple blog posts Peter is writing... Day 1 Of Work Experience Day one was really fun I spent sometime ripping some cards with prints on them for Jina then I spent the rest drinking hot chocolate and making thumbnails for a final piece that I’m going to complete for the end ..read more

Last Autumn I was delighted to work with Barbour and offer a competition to celebrate their AW17 Coastal campaign and the launch of Barbour Dogs. Part of this also entailed an interview with me at my studio with my own dog Tara and that blog post can be read here. I had a great time and I love how Tara was none too impressed with having her photo taken. The competition asked people to send in or post pictures of their dogs at the beach and even though I only got to see a selection of some of your beautiful canine companions I really enjoyed looking through the photos. I had the pleasure of ch ..read more