We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vicki Elder a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Vicki, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have always been creative but did this part time alongside various full time jobs. In 2012 I left a particularly stressful job that was not giving me the fulfilment I craved, it led me to set up my own shop – selling both my own work as well as other peoples. It allowed me to paint and create all day, whilst still running the shop.
Whilst building up a following for the shop, mainly through word of mouth – but also through also doing markets and shows in the UK, I was also steadily growing my online presence via social media of my own work. One of the biggest milestones was getting featured in Country Living magazine in 2017, this gave me coverage across the UK as well as in other countries, and really boosted my online profile as a result.
In 2018 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, running the shop whilst going through the treatment was particularly hard and gave me a different perspective on how I wanted to live my life – without having the stress of running a retail business alongside my art. Following the treatment I ran the shop for a further year but took the opportunity to close it at the start of 2020 (just before the pandemic). My online presence had grown to a point that I was able to work from home full time, concentrating on my art with no distractions and selling solely online.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

From a young age I have always loved to paint, especially wildlife. I was inspired by my Grandad, he had taken up painting in retirement. He encouraged me, alongside my art teacher – I guess art was the only thing I was any good at when I was at school!
I had a breakthrough moment when I found some old sheet music for ‘Bright Eyes’ whilst looking through a charity shop, I painted a rabbit on it and loved the effect. It inspired me to find other vintage ephemera to paint wildlife on and it’s what I have being doing since. I love the idea of giving an item a new life with one of my paintings, often these items will either be destroyed or left in a box somewhere – I like to think I am continuing its journey. I like to link my painting to the item that I am painting on, and I love the history that relates to the item in many cases. I have painted on many things from old letters and postcards to menus, handbills and indentures. Some items going back to the 1700’s.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me it’s to think that my work is appreciated all over the world, there is nothing more rewarding to know that my work is in people’s homes and is giving enjoyment to them.
I also love the fact that the things I paint on would long be forgotten in most cases and I give them a new life. I like to think I am bringing the past back to life.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

One thing I was always keen to do was to make sure that my audience was authentic and to grow organically. I have never paid for followers or courted followers just to hit a number, this required patience and discipline. I feel that now I have an audience who really are interested in what I do and genuinely care about it. I could have a higher number but prefer to have been true to myself in that way.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: thefoxintheforest
• Facebook: thefoxintheforest