Seagulls, Sand and Sea
Hello! I’m Victoria. I grew up in the beautiful seaside resort of Scarborough, and I'm a self-taught digital artist designing colourful, seaside-inspired artwork for children and adults alike from my little studio in Driffield, East Yorkshire, where I now live.
I’ve loved drawing and painting from an early age. I was really interested in watercolour painting, and my dad would take my sister and me to the art shop on the weekends, where I would spend ages eying up my next brush purchase, or my next tube of paint.
Roll on many years, and I'm a professional photographer and teaching assistant, but of course, like with millions of others, this all came to a crashing halt in March 2020, including most of my income. My mum and step-dad very kindly offered to pay for a subscription to Adobe Illustrator for me, as it was an ideal time to learn a new creative skill while I had no work (apart from looking after my then 2-year-old twins, who couldn’t attend nursery - a job in itself). Being adept with Photoshop, I thought it would be fairly similar to use, but it was a whole new skill set and very exciting! I loved the freedom of vector graphics, being able to enlarge images without any pixellation, unlike with photographs.
At the time, I was living in Liverpool, and I really missed being able to travel to the beach, the smell of the salty breeze and the sights and sounds. I started designing seaside-inspired artwork, and then I thought, ‘Why don’t I design some seaside artwork for the twins’ bedroom?’. I had been searching for ages for bold and colourful seaside art prints to bring a few of my happy childhood memories into the twins' bedroom, but never quite found what I was looking for. I discovered lots of colourful typography, but little in the way of prints with illustrations, which conjured up the sights and sounds of a seaside town. I showed the twins what I had designed, and they loved my mix-and-match ice lollies, the cheeky seagulls and beach kiosks. I then showed some designs to my friend’s 8-year-old daughter, and she was obsessed with my pink lollies and pink ice cream shop design.
My next thought was that perhaps I could professionally print my designs and open an Etsy Shop. A shop for all those people who also grew up by the sea, or spent happy holidays by the sea, and want a little reminder of the sights and sounds. I could design fun ‘seasidey’ art for children's walls, which could also appeal to grown-ups, after all, who doesn’t love an ice lolly! I could also design some ‘seasidey’ art for adults that may also appeal to children. I feel that the world we live in can be so gloomy at times nowadays, and art that can give us all a little smile can only be a good thing. And so in April 2021. I set up ‘Salthouse’, named after one of the large docks on the Liverpool waterfront, and in July 2021, I opened my Etsy shop ‘SalthouseStudio’.
I'm loving having an excuse to draw again, and I hope that you will love some of the designs I have created. I have a long list of ideas ready to be brought to life, so please watch out for plenty of new additions!
