about

the geese of

Sowerby Bridge

Freedom Is What You Make It’

some customers of the cafe?

say something good

love

notes

rude girl!

I started painting seriously in the summer of 2007. It all started when I supplied a local cafe with some paintings, after the owner had spotted one of them at a local printers. She took 10 off me, and sold them within a week! And so it went on & grew from there really, to this point now where I have paintings in galleries around the UK, a nice amount of exhibitions under my belt, a world wide publishing deal and collectors around the world!.

With the help of my husband, Chris (who works in design & marketing) I self publish my own very-limited edition prints, we do our own marketing and work extremely closely with some amazing galleries & people. Most of all I’m astounded by the people who buy & collect my pictures. Whenever i meet them, they are all, without exception, lovely.

I have had a love of art ever since I was a little child when my late father, Patrick, would sit with me in the Irish Club in Halifax teaching me to draw shire horses. It stuck with me from there, and while I was growing I was never without a pen & paper.

It was only when I had my son Alistair, that I decided to give painting a ‘proper’ go. While Ali was sleeping, I would do the odd painting or drawing, and I found that I still really loved doing it.

I now have my own studio, 15 minutes walk from home and above my favourite cafe. I always start the day with a latte downstairs & wander up and get stuck in straight away.

I count myself very lucky to be one of the few people who’s job is their passion. I never take it for granted! I am supported tremendously by the galleries I work closely with. My drawings and paintings have appeared in commercial work such as CD covers, magazines, brochures and marketing campaigns.

In November 2009 I was awarded a Highly Commended at Red Magazine’s “Red’s Hot Women” Awards to celebrate Britain’s most inspiring working women (my son Alistair said “Yeah, right!). I was the highlight of a fantastic year, and was celeb-tastic, held at Millbank Towers, overlooking the Hoses of Parliament.

I live in West Yorkshire in a little village overlooking fields with maniac cows (they’ve appeared in a few paintings too)!

I exhibit 2 or three times a year and do a few of the Art fairs as well. I am kept constantly busy & there is always a waiting list for new pictures, even though I paint as fast as I can (latte breaks allowing)!

Angie x

ABOUT MY PAINTINGS

I have been asked many times about the stories behind my paintings, it occurred to me that a lot of them are taken from events in my childhood. This was a revelation as I’d never really thought about it before, I was just grateful that I had ideas at all.

The story begins with a little girl who didn’t have many friends and who spent most of her time drawing or playing with the neighbour’s dog [Sandy]. My dad used to take the time to teach me how to draw, but he could only draw shire horses, [and cubes], as they were his favourite animals. This kept me quiet and out of trouble and still does to this day.

When I was looking through the pictures I realised that when I had a serious point to put across, I always painted animals. The dogs, cats and birds usually have hidden stories or meaning to them.

For example, in ‘Freedom Is What You Make It’, the bird in the painting can leave the cat at any time, even though he’s caged, the door is wide open [as they always are], but he decides to stay because he doesn’t feel trapped, he’s happy. I wouldn’t know where to start if I were to paint people in this situation, it would look far too serious.

In much of my work you will notice certain elements appear time and time again.

For example, ladders, cages, flying animals etc. and the fact that the eyes of my people never look down [unless they are looking at some gorgeous cake]. This all has to do with positivity. The cages are open, the ladders all lead to the sky and the eyes look towards something better.

The little tags with hearts on symbolise love notes & secret admirers.

I paint mouths in the shape of hearts because i believe if you can’t say anything good - say nothing (also I can’t paint mouths very well!).

Flying animals - well, let’s just say that’s the artist’s prerogative!

Recent work is taken from my home town and the people who live there. It’s full of characters and I can’t imagine ever running out of inspiration as long as I’m living here. ‘Dot and Spot’, ‘A time to Dance’, Wash Day’, etc, are all true to the place I live.

The geese which have appeared recently, live on the river bank at the back of my studio, and every day walk through the town & across the road to swim - stopping traffic on the way (it's a very busy road).

My studio is above my favourite cafe, and doing what I love most in the world, life doesn’t get much better that this. Needless to say, I have informed the regulars at the cafe that they may appear in a painting at some point, so they know to be on their best behavior. It's already started, with food & people eating appearing a bit more regularly!

The most recent and the most poplar paintings have been of sexy ladies, burlesque dancers and just plain rude ones. Don’t ask where these came from, but I absolutely love doing them. Each one takes on a life of it’s own & the personality of each of the lovely ladies only comes out when I decide what hair colour to put on at the end - red, brunette or blonde! Oh what an interesting life!