Artist Side Hustle Raising Awareness for Endangered Birds through Art

I am Sally and I am a full-time mixed media artist and illustrator. I mainly do lino prints but also do watercolour, mixed media, 3D, and woven pieces. I retired early to pursue this passion full time. I have exhibited in local galleries and have been a contributor to a collaborative exhibition about Curlews, at The Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, in North Yorkshire, England. I have also illustrated two books and produced Curlew Calling - a book about the year my daughter and I spent looking at Curlews.

I have always been ‘into art’. From a very early age I was encouraged by my two artistic parents to draw, paint, and make things. I have always drawn and created things in my spare time and have never been without my sketchbook. When I lost my mum, it put into sharp perspective that we only get one shot in life and so it was as good a time as any to take the plunge and go full time into what I loved.

My main inspiration is nature. I am blessed to be surrounded by beautiful countryside and I have easy access to The Yorkshire Dales National Park on my doorstep. Walking the dogs every day helps to ground me and makes me very aware of the seasonal changes and I enjoy watching the buzzards cry overhead or a family of long tailed tits bounce in the branches of the birches just as much.

I am very concerned about the state of our natural environment and many of the birds, which I see every day, are in fact on the red list. Birds of Conservation Concern is compiled by a coalition of the UK’s leading bird conservation and monitoring organisations and reviews the status of all regularly occurring birds in the UK, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man. I am sure you might be surprised that starlings, house sparrows, curlews, puffins, skylarks, and cuckoos are all on the red list. If in what I do I can draw people’s attention to these at-risk species, it might help to conserve them for future generations.

I think for me success is getting lovely feedback, knowing that what I have created has touched someone enough to want it on their wall. It might sound odd, but I don’t create things for someone else, I create as a personal response to things I see and or feel. I feel very blessed if someone else likes what I do and can get something from it.

My advice is to be authentic – be you – do what brings you joy and nurtures your own creativity. Decide about if and how you want to share what you do. When I did my first exhibition it was a huge thing – it felt like standing naked in public – nowhere to hide – would anyone like something enough to buy it? Well, it did go well and that was an enormous confidence boost. I also chose to do some days ‘in residence’ so I could talk to people. I made some great contacts and met some lovely people. Don’t do things that don’t feel right for you – I am much happier with a lino tool than on social media so that’s what I do, and my daughter helps with techie stuff which would not only take me ages but wouldn’t be as good as what Rach can produce for me.

My Instagram: @ashfordcottagedesign

My Website: www.ashfordcottagedesign

You can also contact me via email: [email protected]