About Page
Welcome to Sophie Huddlestone’s website, a U.K. artist specialising in watercolours and expanding into oil paintings and mixed media.
A selection of Sophie’s original paintings are also available at Saatchi Art, which is the world’s leading online art gallery, based in Los Angeles.
Painting is oxygen
Painting is my oxygen, I don’t think I could survive without a paintbrush in hand. Even on our annual holiday the paintbrush is the first thing packed. My art studio is filled with beach themed items to re-create that holiday feeling. The comfort zone for me is definitely sploshing about with paint at my Leicestershire seaside.
“If the unspoken rules of how a painting should look were contained in a bottle, then I’m going to shake it, twist the lid, and let creativity burst out of my swirly brain regardless of the consequences” Sophie Huddlestone.
An interest in art began at 11 years of age with complex themes that were not your typical house, tree and rainbow. I was in ore of Salvador Dali and would daydream in his pictures for hours. The encouragement for my art at an early age was fantastic but it was mainly when I painted something sweet. In 2011 I picked up my paintbrush and the urge to create came back full throttle. Twirling brush stokes and adding a tiny hidden smile face in the swirls of ink soon became my trade mark style.
I had two strings to my bow with contemporary animals and a surrealism streak, but the flowing ideas for the ‘weird’ artworks remained bottled up.
I began to use my married name of Huddlestone in 2018 and dared to include the more unusual art works combined with portraiture. The current narratives of which are are based on the complexity of hidden human emotions, adding messages within the art, aspects of past & present or things which will be very different in generations to come. If a painting speaks to you and draws you in for a longer gaze, perhaps your subconscious has already deciphered a connection with it.
I often paint animal, bird and flower commissions but was a little nervous when asked to create my first portrait commission this March. It was for Russell Osman – he acted in the film Escape to Victory, Indian Super league football expert, TV Co-commentator, former footballer for England etc. and I was thrilled when he displayed my portrait on his Instagram @russosman and his Twitter @RussellOs5 Given free reign to create the portrait with any theme I decided to combine his past film as the background, the England colours in the shirt he wore for the film and painting him as he looks today, plus some of my signature style swirly squiggles. To my relief he thought it was wonderful.
A selection of Sophie’s artworks are also for sale at Saatchi Art. Prices are in US dollars on there. Type in Sophie Huddlestone on to the search bar at www.saatchiart.com or use this link https://www.saatchiart.com/sophieh
Sophie’s recent Instagram posts
Instagram @creativemrsh
Social Media
@creativemrsh
Artist Sophie Appleton Huddlestone
@CreativeMrsH
Contact
Want to get an answer to a question quickly? Facebook messenger Sophie directly @SwirlySophArt or text 07932 606867
All other contact methods are on the contact page.
Snapchat
Lets add each other on Snapchat and we can view each others story. I’m creativemrsh on there. (No group chats – teens internet safety reasons).
Bio
Sophie specialises in portraits with a twist and animal paintings with a twirl. The swirly brush strokes makes it easy to spot a Sophie Huddlestone painting, the majority of collectors being from the U.S. and U.K.
The blue tinted glasses that Sophie wears are for Irlen Syndrome which could be the quirk that encourages the happy vibes in the colour combinations.
Having a degree with honours for industrial ceramics (Staffordshire University) and working with Wedgwood as a student, Sophie went on to sell pattern designs to Staffordshire Tableware. It was when she won the university’s Stuttgart surface pattern competition that the love and enthusiasm for creating swirly artworks took over the ceramics. Life events put painting on hold until her mid 30’s when the swirly artistic adventures began to unfold.
Past exhibitions have been at gallery’s in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire.
Currently Sophie’s artworks remain on display in all the corridors of Vision House in Leicestershire. With future exhibitions being on hold due to raising a family Sophie prefers online displays, and has sold artworks to a few well known U.K. celebrities along the way, such as the Author Lynda Page and England Footballer / sports commentator Russell Osman.
As well as this website you can also purchase Sophie’s original paintings at Saatchi Art which is the world’s leading online art gallery based in Los Angeles.
Sophie’s App
I was thrilled to have my app approved to be on the list of available phone apps on the App Store and Google Play. It is called Swirly Soph Art and is available for free on the App Store and Google Play. New art on a live feed, occasional quiz competitions, live chat, app users art on display, discount codes on the bargains section etc. On a tablet search for it in the list of ‘phone’ apps.
Swirl Away
A few examples of pages on this website are below. Or swirl towards the main menu above for the main pages such as commissions, portraits, prints, paintings, shop etc.