Hello! I’m Coralie, the artist and owner of The Portrait Shop. Thanks for coming to learn more about me, and if you ever want to learn more, or just enjoy a friendly chat, come and find me on Instagram and Facebook – I’d love to get to know you too!

My love of drawing started from a very young age when I was always sketching and doodling in school exercise books and on scrap paper. Over the years I tried my hand at a few different mediums, including acrylic paint and pastel pencils. In 2012, I settled on graphite pencil as my medium of choice; I really enjoy creating an intense contrast between light and shade and focusing on details that bring the image to life.

My love for animals has been with me all my life and I have been fortunate to spend much of my youth on horseback! The natural step from drawing dream ponies winning rosettes was to draw horses from real life, who belonged to people I knew. I fell in love with this process and have been drawing people’s beloved pet and horse portraits for many years.

I became a mum in 2019 to my son, Rowan, and have since had my second son, Alex, in 2021. Becoming a mum is an incredible experience, full of challenges and rewards. In between having two children there was a challenge of a very different kind that struck all of us: the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. I was furloughed from my day job, which is when I had the time and inspiration to create The Portrait Shop. As I was looking after Rowan full-time, and putting energy into my new art venture, I was inspired to add people portraits into my artistic repertoire – more specifically, babies and children. I wanted to experiment with using simplistic line drawing styles to capture the characteristics of a baby’s profile. I found it fascinating that even with a few lines of pencil you could immediately recognise those key features that make that individual unique. Plus, I adore capturing the perfect shape of a baby’s squishy cheek!

My dream for The Portrait Shop is to create a business that celebrates the joy our loved ones give us by capturing their likesness in a beautiful, unique and cherished piece of art. I know from my own experience and from happy customers, that you can never get tired of seeing that special someone’s portrait adorning your wall.

Best wishes,

Coralie