Sally Brown Art

Following your heart is a term that is often heard but not always the easiest path unless you’re ready for a challenge with a few twists and turns along the way. After meeting Sally Brown, it’s apparent it’s those twists, turns and challenges are the very things that inspire her creative soul.

Commissioned piece for Andrea Gillard Design for Tiger Works Bar & Cocktail Lounge Sheffield.

Sally in the studio.

Sally Brown describes herself as an illustrator, artist and designer. When we meet, it’s clear that there isn’t a stone unturned when it comes to her creative side and her artistic skillset. She creates her pieces in a studio space at home and is currently working on a range of paintings produced with the intention of being digitised and used for fabrics in furnishing and from there onto wallpaper.

This is a new direction that has been borne from her sketches and paintings of animals and is almost full circle from her artistic past. Throughout her life, when the opportunity arose to acquire a new creative skill, she has rolled up her sleeves and tackled any challenge presented with enthusiasm.

Sally tells Made that she enjoys creating in any method, and there is much evidence, from winning a sketchbook competition and having paintings chosen for galleries to re-cladding and upcycling pieces of furniture. Sally’s career path began at a textile company as a woven fabric designer for the interior décor market following a BSc in Textile Design at Huddersfield Polytechnic. After a few years in this area, she decided a career change was needed, finding a bursary for teacher training she took a leap of faith into teaching Design and Technology. Her training was split between Leeds University and a school in Scunthorpe, which led to a job at Ordsall Hall School in Retford.

It wasn’t until she started teaching that Sally discovered that she was dyslexic. This was a revelation and she now had an answer to why she had struggled in the past and found that she had to work so much harder to achieve the things that she wanted. Sally now sees dyslexia as a positive, as it is the root of her creativity.

Nico Polo. The large painting that was chosen to be exhibited in the Harley Open 2019 at Welbeck.

Being a Design and Technology teacher meant that there were she started to work on pieces that were inspired from animal plenty of new skills to master and teach. She took this as an photographs she had taken visiting places such as Yorkshire opportunity to gain experience working with plastics and wood, Wildlife Park, the Big Cat Sanctuary and Longleat. The key using a wide range of tools and to creating her own style was machinery. After over two decades inspired by a canvas print she saw in an academic role it was time for when on holiday in Madeira. The Sally to step out of her comfort zone to take on the next challenge. “I didn’t enjoy the paperwork and “I’m a creative addict, I have to do something, if something photograph of a kitten sitting within a picture frame had an impact that would continue to influence Sally’s didn’t get the job satisfaction that I began with,” said Sally. excites me I do it.” artwork, and the Framed Animal Series was born.

With a skill set that covered almost everything in the creative world, Sally decided to start sketching and painting. She quickly went on to win a sketchbook competition through the Association of Animal Artists.

Finding a niche was the key to the artwork that followed. With a love of animals and a sense of quirkiness to her style Knowing that art markets are tough, Sally felt the need to diversify her work model and turn her passion into a business. She began by joining local business clubs, spending time creating a business idea that she could love as a job and also grow in an organic way, creating products from the paintings. “When your hobby becomes your business do you lose the hobby?”

Clockwise from top left, the sketchbook competition, Sally's refurbished furniture (see her blog for full details: www.sallybrownart.com) and a selection of cushions available that have been created from Sally's paintings.

One of the larger pieces she created was titled Nico Polo, based on a gorilla at Longleat. Visitors at the Harley Open in 2019 would have seen this imposing and quirky painting taking pride of place in the gallery.

You can tell from speaking to Sally that she has sparks of inspiration that lead her in different directions in everything she sees. She spreads her love of art across everything she touches, with the experience she has gained and her passion for creativity, she customises almost everything that crosses her path. Changing items, including furniture, into unique pieces. “I’m a creative addict, I have to do something, if it excites me, I do it.”

The paintings are carefully planned and composed to stretch the artwork created across a range of media, this has branched out towards home decor, returning Sally to her roots in fabric design. She now sees her paintings on a range of soft furnishings such as cushions and chairs, and a collaboration with interior designer Andrea Gillard gave rise to a huge print of a prowling tiger in the Tiger Works Cocktail Bar and Lounge in Sheffield. Following the soft furnishings, the next step is wallpaper, and to be honest we don’t see her stopping there. Coming back full circle to the fabrics from the textile beginnings she has woven her interests and skills into her working life and is enjoying the benefits. This involves a large amount of her time developing her paintings in order to make them useable in a multifunctional format, digitised and created for interiors, Sally is thrilled that her work moved organically in this direction and “the excitement of having my stuff in someone else’s house.”

If you’d like to see a larger range of Sally Brown’s work, along with home furnishings, cushion art, occasional chairs and prints, you can find everything on Sally’s website. Also also take the time to have a look at her blog that has a few of her latest projects including a stunning change of appearance for a sideboard!