Driving through the Yorkshire Dales on a sunny Spring morning, it feels like there is no place I would rather be. The vibrant green hills lit up with unexpected sunshine – and the sheep, my favourite animals.
And who can replicate this beauty better, in her own whimsical and imaginative style, than the award winning Dales artist, Lucy Pittaway?
I interviewed her at her offices in Brompton on Swale, two weeks after her new outlet store had opened in what was her original gallery, and just after her new collection had been launched.
She runs her business as an artist and MD, in partnership with her husband Neil Pittaway, who is the commercial director. She left her job as a senior arts lecturer and manager to pursue her dream of being a full-time artist. They now have eight galleries, including an outlet store and employ 65 staff, shipping home-wear and gifts worldwide.
“I’m a business woman in the morning and an artist in the afternoon,” she says, “but I often paint at weekends, so it’s usually six days a week. I put my heart and soul into it all.”
The meeting room where we met overlooks what was her first gallery, a small unit on an industrial estate. Neil had the idea to place all discontinued and former display stock here, and open an outlet store, and after only two weeks, it is doing very well.
Her new collection is inspired by her time spent amidst nature, and working with Julian Norton, the Yorkshire Vet.
” I wanted to call the collection, All Creatures Great and Small, but as that is a brand in itself, I decided to call it, Living the Good Life,” says Lucy. “It features animals we find in the countryside, such as Belted Galloway cows, alpacas, dogs, cats and various insects as well as the Valais sheep, the ones with the curly coats and black noses which originate in Switzerland. I call that one Spag and Hetti, as their coats look like spaghetti.”
Lucy’s paintings are quirky and uplifting and she has been told they make people smile. Originally a florist, Lucy’s paintings often reflect this in the colourful flowers which feature in her work. They reflect her love of nature and the outdoors, and some of her life experiences too.
However, she calls this the toughest time for small businesses, after the unsettling period during Covid, as today’s economic climate is proving to be very challenging – but the positive feedback she gets keeps her going.
Lucy is the daughter of Middlesbrough Football Club legend Willie Maddren, and as it is 25 years since her dad died from Motor Neurone Disease, she has chosen the Motor Neurone Disease Association as her charity for this year, to help raise funds for research and caring for families affected by MND.
Lucy was born in Stockton, and her parents divorced when she was three. Over the next few years they both re-married, and she lived with her mum and stepdad, gained an extended family and saw her dad at weekends.
She has early memories of visits to Ayresome Park with her dad. “As a little girl I just remember the smell of the men’s changing room, and this giant bath they all got into,” she says. “Strange how some memories stay with you.”
“Dad was so talented at most sports, and my brothers both have careers in sport, but I was so bad at everything I tried,” she adds. ” I was the last girl to be chosen for a team. However I got my creative side from my mum, who was a florist, as was my stepmum. I still love floristry and arrange gifts for people as well as making special arrangements for dad’s grave.”
Lucy grew up in Stockton, but when she was nine, the family moved to Darlington.
“Dad was then the coach and manager for Middlesbrough and I was booed in class when they found out who my dad was because of the club rivalry,” she says. “Mum moved my brother and I around a lot and I was bullied at school, so I learnt very early in my life on how to adapt to change.”
Lucy’s mum needed support because of mental health issues, so she grew up helping her. After attending a Darlington senior school, she pursued her love of art and creativity by studying art and design, before getting a degree in graphic design at Northumbria University. Not wanting to go into graphics, she continued her mum’s floristry business, also making jewellery and painting furniture at home.
“When dad was first diagnosed, I knew I had to get away from working alone as I was both concerned about my dad, and mum’s illness too,” Lucy says. “At 22 I became a graphic designer, and at 24, I saw an advert from Cleveland College of Art and Design for a lecturer. I lacked the teaching qualifications, but interviewed well and was offered the job. I had been one of their star students which helped, and I was able to complete my PGCE while working. I became the course leader, and taught photography, IT and graphic design.”
At the college – rebranded the Northern School of Art in 2018 – Lucy taught 16-21 year-old students graphic design, multimedia, games design, animation and Office IT packages, as well as teaching two courses in the evenings at Teesside University. She became a manager and her role changed from inspiring students to managing people and paperwork.
Something had to change.
When driving home from work, one October when the rain was pouring down, she let herself in to her empty house and thought. Is this it?
“I was happily single, but had broken up from a long-term relationship, my dad had died and mum was recently divorced. Things were just not brilliant. I knew then I had to change my life for my own self preservation. I had to discover who I was.”
So, she bravely gave up her job, rented out her house, sold her car, bought herself a big rucksack and set off to explore the world.
She departed for South America, but things did not go quite to plan, spending her first night in a hovel, crying and wondering what she had done. However, she picked herself up, set off on the adventure she had planned, exploring 14 different countries, and having the experiences of a life time.
Just before leaving though, when she had all her travel plans sorted, and flights booked, she met an old flame, Neil, in Yarm. They had dated for five years until she was 21, when they decided to go their separate ways. They had a coffee together, and decided to keep in touch while Lucy was travelling.
“I travelled the world, met lots of different people, and had the time of my life thinking I might meet Mr Right along the way, but as it turns out, he was here all along,” she says.
Neil was running a catering business, so after Lucy had worked as a florist and waitress at night to pay off her travel debts, she taught herself health and safety and bookkeeping and joined his business. They married and began renovating an old farmhouse, living in a caravan. Lucy was pregnant with twins, finding opportunities to paint in her spare time, and selling work by word of mouth.
“It always feels so special being the mother of twins, a boy and a girl, and the fact that they get on so well,” says Lucy. “They are 16 now, and I told myself that when they started school, I wanted to do something creative. Neil said he would support me and we had a bet – could I replace the income I was earning now within a year. I rose to the challenge, throwing myself 100 per cent into my passion for painting and drawing.”
The art business took off so they shrank the catering business, and from a metal cabin amidst the rubble that would become their future home, Lucy went for it, working on exhibitions, contacting galleries, keeping up with Facebook, creating a website, and painting for hours on end.
Lucy Pittaway HQ was in their home, and the business flourished very quickly. There wereart materials all over the kitchen table, Christmas cards everywhere, and the children wondered why all these strangers were in the house. Lucy and Neil decided as the business was growing rapidly, they needed to take it out of the house, so what is now the outlet store, became their first gallery in 2015.
It soon got really busy. Neil was Lucy’s right hand man from the start and they carried out all the business tasks together. They had to employ more people and they made the decision to open more galleries.
In 2016 Lucy was voted as the UK’s most up and coming artist by the Fine Art Trade Guild. In 2018 she achieved the UK’s most popular published artist award – receiving the same award twice more. Between 2016 and 2018, she was the official artist for the Tour de Yorkshire.
Looking back on the risks she took and the challenges she faced, Lucy says: “I could have stayed where I was in a job I didn’t enjoy, but I took a leap of faith, and my life turned from black and white into technicolour.
“Nothing changes if nothing changes.”
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