A talented Abergavenny artist who specialises in pet portraits is hoping to expand and build a business from her increasingly popular artwork.
Holly Shannon is a self-taught artist who in 2020 started advertising and selling her artwork through social media.
Having created profiles on Facebook and Instagram to promote her work, Holly has been inundated with orders and requests from local people to produce drawings of their beloved pets.
Despite only starting out as a hobby whilst studying in school, ‘Holly’s Art’ has now grown so popular that she has a long waiting list of orders and is now thinking about launching her own website and starting her own business.
Speaking to the Chronicle about how her budding business venture started, Holly said: “It started around Christmas 2019. My sister’s friend asked if I could draw her horse to give to someone for a Christmas present. I’ve always had a passion for art and studied it at school, both at GCSE and A-Level.
“My sister then put the finished piece on Facebook and I received some real positive feedback from people who encouraged me that I should think about doing more artwork involving pets. I produced a drawing of my own dog and then decided that I would offer to draw other people’s pets.”
Since first advertising her art services online in February 2020, Holly has grown an impressive portfolio of work that has received excellent reviews both online and from those customers who have bought her drawings.
Having steadily grown her artwork online over the last few years, Holly started taking commissions in January 2022.
Holly’s achievements are made all the more impressive by the fact that she started this venture whilst studying Sixth Form at King Henry VIII School during the midst of a Covid pandemic.
Having finished her school studies last year, Holly opted to take a gap year working in retail and will be starting university at Cardiff Metropolitan University in September where she will be studying Fashion Design.
Holly produces her artwork using graphite and wax-based pencils with her drawings usually taking between seven to 10 days from start to finish.
The price of her work ranges from anything between £40-80 depending on portrait size and type of drawing, whist she also now offers gift vouchers.
Holly uses her Instagram page to show not only the process of how she produces her artwork but also the various stages of progress over time as she completes her work.
She currently has six pieces of work commissioned up until August and is expecting to receive more orders and demand after August in the build up to Christmas.
Holly hopes to continue her artwork around her university studies and would also consider setting up her own website in the future.
She added: “At the moment Facebook and Instagram works quite well for me. There is such a great reach with social media and I have lots of orders coming through along with a fairly long waiting list.
“I very much enjoy producing this kind of work for people, it is very rewarding to see how much people appreciate the drawings.
‘‘Absolutely I would eventually like to create my own website that would be the dream, but I am happy continuing the way I am for now and to see how I can combine this work with my university studies before making a decision on that.”
To view Holly’s artwork and for more information on prices and requesting commissions please visit ‘Holly’s Art’ social media pages on Facebook and Instagram or email [email protected]