THE LAST POSTING DATE FOR CHRISTMAS IS DECEMBER 5th

Wendy Carlton Art

About the Artist Wendy Carlton

I have been extremely lucky to paint and make things for a living for over 30 years now.

I started my career as a textile designer in a London Studio after getting a 1st class hons degree in Textile design. I worked at the studio gaining experience but eventually went on to become a greeting card artist which I did for 16 years. After working on a small scale for so long I decided I wanted to go LARGE. So in the early noughties I started painting 1m sized canvases of large flower heads for my own house, however my collection grew, and I began exhibiting them.

Over the years, I have developed different styles of work to create various ranges of paintings, which continue to be bold bright colours with nature as their theme. I have exhibited up and down the country, and my paintings are in galleries and private collections all over the UK. Recently, I’ve decided to concentrate on selling directly to customers and to avoid the mark-ups that agents/galleries add-on and to concentrate on local exhibitions to limit my travel.

I have always had a love of Nature and a passion for bold colour this comes across in all my paintings. My current ranges are:
  1. Meadowlands – fields of flowers
  2. Abstract Landscapes – views of fields, lakes and lochs
  3. Into the Woods – abstract trees in forests and woods
  4. I let my heart sing – a looser freestyle, trying to conjure up the emotional rather than the physical.
Whilst exhibiting, I was occasionally told by people who loved my work that they wished they had the space for a large painting but as they didn’t, they would love to own something smaller created by me and reflecting my colourful style.

As I have always loved fabrics and my roots were in Textile design, I sought out the best quality fabric printers I could find. I came across one based in London called Contrado. Their custom-made fabrics aren’t cheap but the quality is fantastic. I started by making cushions in 2017, I initially tried out several fabrics before choosing a Soft Velvet as it feels sooo scrumptious.

The cushions were a hit, so I decided to try out other products and over the next year I added Placemats and Coasters, these are made by SmithTaylor a Worcestershire manufacturer who produce custom printed tableware from Artist’s images. The quality of their products is very high with a thick Melamine top and a cork bottom, – it is amazing how many I found which didn’t have the quality cork bottom!!

I added Lampshades in 2019 was which have proved to be the most popular of all and I make all the lampshades and cushions myself in my home studio in Yorkshire. I had been rather apprehensive about making Lampshades but surprisingly I LOVE IT!!

I had always wanted to produce good quality prints on canvas, I’d tried several companies, but was never satisfied with either the quality of the printing, the nylon type finish, the wooden frame not being substantial enough – or they were way too expensive for the sizes I required to make them saleable. In 2021, I eventually found a company in Wales, which achieved everything I was looking for and at price affordable enough to sell the prints. They also ship directly to my customers and arrive well packaged.
I have always painted using my (maiden) name Wendy Carlton but I wanted to brand my products using a different shop type name. What better than my original 2 studio companions who used to sit with me all day long whilst I am painting and making – Dotty and Florence (Dotty and Flo). It also related to my work as I used a lot of dots and splatters in my paintings and the flow of the paint across the canvas!!

Whilst Dotty and Flo suits my products very well, I’ve decided that it is time to drop the name, as Dotty was 14 in 2023 and it will be too upsetting when nature eventually takes its course.