'You have to be very brave'

North-East artist Lucy Pittaway always knew she wanted to be an artist, but if it hadn't been for the inspiration of her father, she believes she wouldn’t be where she is today. Better known as Boro footballing legend Willie Maddren, he was an inspiration both on the pitch and off, particularly in his battle with motor neurone disease. And although he spotted Lucy’s talent when she was young, he never saw her success as an artist. Her work is now featured in exhibitions throughout the UK and she has commissions from Dubai, the US and New Zealand.

Lucy specialises in two styles of working, one more of a photo realistic style influenced by her traveling, the other more of an emotional response to her own life experiences. “It’s very much about love, life, death, relationships and how you deal with everyday things. I use art as a way of telling a story and representing a feeling and hopefully people can relate to that,” she says.

Lucy has loved drawing since she was a child and remembers all the other kids being outside and playing sport while she would be inside painting her pets. She studied art and design at Darlington College of Technology and Northumbria University and experimented with various mediums from painting furniture and jewellery-making to floristry and animation. After running her own craft business and unsure which direction to take, she accepted a lecturer post back at her old college.

“It was a really big role for me at the time and I remember my dad saying, ‘you haven’t bitten off more than you can chew, have you?’,” she says. “I said, ‘No, I’m like you dad, I’m not a quitter'. I think I’ve picked up that strength of character and positive streak from him because he never quit at his football and when he contracted motor neurone disease, he didn’t quit then either. He was such a strong fighter. I remember saying to him, I’ll be alright dad, I’ll prove myself.”

Lucy was only 26 when her dad died and found herself turning to art as often as she could as a way of expressing what was going on in her life. Five years later, she gave up lecturing and went travelling. “I went all over - Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South America, India, New Zealand and took hundreds and hundreds of photographs thinking one day I would live my dream and paint the places and experiences I’d had,” she says.

Although she continued to paint, it was only last year – with the support of her husband and with their five year old twins, William and Ava, starting school – that Lucy had the opportunity to take her art more seriously, working from a studio at her home in Richmond. “It’s been in the background for 15 to 20 years, but you have to be very brave to make the move to become an artist,” she says. “I do a lot about the journey of life and the experiences you have becoming a wife and mother. A lot of people say my work makes them smile, I think that comes from having young kids because they see the world as a positive place and I’ve focused on that in my art.”

Her latest exhibition, Idyllic Dreams, at The Station in Richmond features 70 to 80 pieces, including paintings from her Ever Changing Horizons and Houses collections as well as her sheep series. It will also feature landscapes of Richmond and cyclists, inspired by the Tour de France when it came to Yorkshire last year.

‘The Houses’ is a series of pastel paintings where relationships, break-ups, marriage and children are represented by a house, usually on a hill. “There are always hills involved because life is a bit of a rollercoaster with ups and downs and lots of change,” she says. “The collection started off being lots of dark colours, representing a time in my life where I didn’t know which direction I was taking, then as I developed, colour came into it and as the kids came along you see flowers appearing. If people were to take a piece of my art literally they would see the house on the hill, but there’s a lot more depth to it than that. The house is a person and the way it is positioned and what is around it is to do with an emotional state or life experience at that time.”

Lucy takes commissions and often has requests to paint people’s houses and family in her abstract style. One couple who got engaged in the Lake District asked if she could do a painting to represent their engagement. “I did two sheep which represented the people," she says. "They were cuddling up together, looking at a beautiful view.”

Idyllic Dreams is at The Station in Richmond from March 21 to April 15.

As well as permanent collections at The North East Art Collective in Eldon Square in Newcastle and The Showcase Gallery in Richmond, Lucy has a number of upcoming exhibitions including The Georgian Theatre Royal, in Richmond, in June and The Garden Rooms at Tennants Auctions, in Leyburn, later in the year.

* Originals range from £750 to £2,000 and limited edition giclee prints from £95 to £250. Lucy also did a range of Christmas cards last year.

lucypittaway.co.uk*

richmondstation.com