We have a very special
meet the Wag this month, the incredibly talented Kate Simpson of Kate Simpson
Fine Art.
Following one of her
recent Christmas Open Day weekends, Kate very kindly invited me to her beautiful
Northumbrian cottage, to talk drawing inspirations and life on the farm.
So on a lovely crisp
frosty Northumbrian morning, I arrive at Kate and boyfriend Jack’s cottage and
receive a very warm welcome from Kate and of course Ralph, Kate’s charming
Corgi dog and inspiration for Kate'a childrens book 'Ralph to the Rescue'.
We sit down to enjoy a
lovely cup of tea in front of the roaring fire and are surrounded by an
abundance of Kate’s stunning artworks and home wares still on show from the
Open Day.
After plenty of fuss for
Ralph we sit down to chat.
Please introduce yourself and Kate Simpson Fine Art: I’m Kate Simpson, I’m an
artist and started working on commission prints at 16 and selling my original work prints at 18, I’ve always been creative, never
really academic, and so just stared this all on a whim to make some money while
I was still at school and so I started doing commission work for people.
So is it your mum and dad's farm:
No actually, I’m not from
a farming background, my mums a teacher and my dad owns an advertising business
in town (Newcastle), so this is all
just brand-spanking new to me. I was in pony club and one of my best friends
asked me to go to a farmers ball and that’s how I joined young farmers
(Northumberland YFC), and like any good farming love story, that’s where I met
Jack about 6 and half years ago, and so I just delved into the world of farming
and so basically I draw what I see everyday, I like it to have a story and
some sort of background, so living on the farm, especially with animals, you do
just see collies on the quad, pheasants roaming around and we even have an owl that
hunts outside, which inspired my Huntress artwork.
Do you draw from Memory or photos?
Well more or less at lot
of it is photographs and planning out the idea, the image of the collie
on the gator, was actually a combination of 3 photographs stuck together, I’m
very lucky that I’m in touch with people who farm cattle or sheep and I’ll see
a photograph that I love and so I’ll contact them to say can I use your photo
and a lot of them say yes, which is great because it brings the connection as I can say this is so and so’s cattle, which is really important to
breeders, potential clients and customers.
Ah yes, your Herefords are from the Moralees heard aren’t they?
Yes that’s right, it’s
always quite nice to know the background of my subjects as a lot of breeders, especially
men, like to asked questions so I know I can’t get caught out on anything if
they’re asking!
And has it always been animals that you’ve drawn?
Yes,
it’s always been animals, I have drawn people before, but I find I can be a bit
more creative with animals, I have a bit more creative license with them, as
with people you have to get it spot on, and I think once you realise what your
market is and what you love to draw you can start to develop your own style,
there are a lot of artists that do stags really well and a lot of artists that
do horses or people really well and I feel like I do my livestock really well (the thing I love about your work is that your perspective
is always so spot on), yeah,
thank you, that’s what I like and I want to get it spot on and I want
it to be right and I get annoyed if it isn't!
And how long would it take you to do a piece, say the
Moralees?
So,
the Moralee would take about 2 weeks to do, and that tends to be from whatever
time in the morning to whatever time at night, I tend to focus on one drawing at
a time and will continue on that piece until it’s finished, it is my full time
job so I try to treat it like that and put in at least 40 hours a week.
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| The Hotstepper - Kate Simpson Fine Art |
And do you do lots of sketching first or just dive straight
in?
I
like to go out and take photographs, so I don’t do a lot of sketching, with me
I’ve already got it in my head, I know exactly what it is I want, it’s tunnel
vision, my dad’s got it as well with his business, it’s just a tunnel vision
of I know what’s going on the paper I want to get it down. (now I am the complete opposite, my ideas are going in all
directions!) sometimes it does take me a day or two to get the idea
but once it’s there I just don’t stop.
Wow that’s amazing, I need some of that, can you share a bit out… lol
Well I can’t do anything
else but when it comes to drawing, I’m fine!
You mentioned Jack is your farmer and you met at young farmers so tell us
about the farm:
We are beef and
arable, we did have some sheep, but we sold them (I think they were too much of
a pain!), so yes we are beef and arable, again I’m not from a farming
background, so I was literally put on a tractor for the first time 6 years ago,
he told me briefly how to drive it and then I was told to go off and lead bales
(this all sounds very familiar i'm sure ladies!) and
that was it! So I kind of just got thrown into it, I didn’t really understand
it, my dads self employed and has his own business so I knew about hard
work but I didn’t realise the life that it is and obviously I just stepped into and
have just gone yeah, I’ll take it, I’ve done my lambing, I’ve got my lambing
licence and my calf feeding license now! (..ah
so you’re a proper farmers wife now then).
Jack stores cattle and
goes to Carlisle to buy calves in and they’ll be here for
about 24 months and then they go off.
On our second date, Jack
couldn’t make it because he had to go ploughing and I couldn’t get my head
around it, I wasn’t annoyed I just was like, ok fine – and that’s basically how
it's gone for the rest of the relationship!
You have built a very successful business in such a short space of time
and at a young age, what are your plans for the future?
Well obviously I released
a children’s book featuring Ralph this year and now I’ve just go the go ahead for more
books, which is amazing, he is such a character and that’s what I’ve always
wanted to do, my life goal was to have a studio, which I did when I moved in
here and to have a children’s book and I’ve done that before I’m 30, so I am
just so pleased it’s been so much bigger than anything I thought it could be,
so the next step is to try and push that a bit more and have a bit more fun
with that. The book is full of traditional drawings but I can be as creative as
I like and that’s what I love, I will probably still do originals and probably
still do drawings and commission work but that (publishing) is very much the
focus now.
And we have got some more
things in the works with Ralph, but I can’t say too much at the moment and with
Christmas coming up I’ve had to put that on hold as this is my busy time and so
I can focus again on it all in January.
So do you have a publisher: No I have published it
myself, as we know I love a bit of a project and it’s so hard to get into the
industry if you don’t know anyone and so my dad sat me down and said you know
you’ve done everything else yourself so why do you think you need someone to
help you with this? and I just took that on board and said I kind of get that
and if you can do it yourself then why not, and you have so much more fun doing
it yourself even if it is a bit more stressful, but it’s things like I get to
meet people like yourself and people what to come and see me and meet Ralph and
that’s what I want, I like it to have that personal touch because that’s
how I started from the support of everyone else and that’s what I want to keep
going.
The achievement must be amazing, because you know you’ve done it yourself? It’s just incredible, but
I can’t do it without the support of people, customers and clients and people
who keep coming back, which I just love.
Well we have started our collection and there will definitely be more soon,
in fact I’ve mentioned to friends I was coming to interview you today and so
many of our friends have said, 'we have one of her prints!'
Ah that’s great, well people will call up and ask if I’m doing a show
and that’s just starting to happen this year and I’m looking back 4/5 years ago
from when I started to now and people are saying its not really luck, you’ve worked
really hard and look at where you are and you still continue to grow. I always
believe if you can work at it and keep going you’ll succeed, at the end of
the day, it is my job but it doesn’t feel like a job because I just absolutely
love it and it’s my passion and if I keep working as hard as I can I can just
keep going.
Give us an overview of your products and prices?
I start prices at £2 for greetings cards, or a pack of cards for £10, I have my book, ‘Ralph to the Rescue’
at £10 and you get a little stamped paw print from Ralph just to approve the
book, I also have ceramic mugs, which are called the everyday mug, so when the
farmer takes it into the farm and brings it back two weeks later, it can come
back and still be as good as new and then I have my prints which range from £20
to £200, commission work and bespoke projects which start at around £195 and
then of course my original pieces which is really an added extra, so it’s great
if they sell but if they don’t I’m not that fussed as I get to keep them.
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| Time for Tea - Kate Simpson Fine Art |
Are you planning to attend any of the large country shows for 2020?
Yes, I’m looking into
doing the Highland Show, I recently did the AgriExpo at Carlise, and I loved
that, it was great and really good fun and I’m really starting to understand
who my market are, which is always a good thing. So I’ll probably attend the
highland, possibly the Great Yorkshire and I’m thinking the DairyExpo, which is
happening in March, so should be the first show of the year and hopefully then the
Valais Show in Carlise. I think I’m also doing the International Sheep Dog
Trials, held here at Castle Howard in September.
Now onto a more serious note, with the increase in veganism and plant
based diets recently and the push back from the general public on farming
practices and the rural way of life, have you received any negativity of your
work?
I actually have, I’ve done
a couple of dairy drawings and I have had a lot of negative comments on my
social media, and so you just get to a stage where you say come on, it’s a
lifestyle choice, it's not anything other than that.
I think some people are now
so far removed from the real world (of food poduction) and really it’s all down to education and
it's down to choice and I don’t understand why you need to pressure people, I
don’t pressure them to not be a vegan, so why is it ok for them to try to
pressure me.
I think it’s just the norm
now in the farming communities that their lifestyle and industry isn’t accepted
but they just get on with their jobs and like all farmers Jack complains about
prices and not being able to drill and all the other problems farming faces,
but they just get on with it.
I feel we are very lucky
we have lamb from here from this year and hopefully we’ll have a beast for the
freezer and so we know exactly where it has come from and so we are very lucky, I
just feel there needs to be a lot more education on it.
My mum used to take pet
lambs into school and show what they sleep on and what they eat and the
children loved it and unfortunately now they have to try and make everyone
happy and of course I’m not saying there shouldn’t be vegans, I just think they
need to work with farmers to understand where their food comes from and we all
need to start making sure we are environmentally friendly, I’ve started to
ensure my packaging is compostable, which is such a little thing but makes a
difference and I try to buy local (which can be hard) but it’s those little
bits that I’m doing that make a little bit of difference.
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| A few shots from Kate's open day, of course featuring Ralph. |
And do you take part in game shoots at all or go clay shooting?
No I don’t really, Jack
does go and I have been beating and stuff but I always think I could be doing
some work and it’s always at my busy time of year, it's almost like my harvest,
so I can’t be spending days out when I could be her working.
Now most importantly, how’s Ralph?
Ah he’s fine, he loved
being the centre of attention at the open days, although I think he’s almost
got an open day hangover from all the attention so he’s now just relaxing after
a busy weekend (at this point Ralph was
laid flat-out fast asleep at Kate’s feet soaking up the sunshine through he
window).
We notice he has very much become the star of the show and you have
alluded to more Ralph inspired products to come, can you tell us more?
Well I can’t say too much
at the moment but I have plans for next year, especially Christmas but I can
tell you I’m working on the second Ralph book at the moment, which should be
due to be published early next year (date???).
Thank you Kate, it was an
absolute pleasure to meet you (and Ralph) wishing you continued success and I
look forward to my ever growing collection of Kate Simpson Fine Art!
