Rebekah Marshall
Bonny Snowdon 00:06
Hello, I'm Bonny Snowdon, ex corporate person, a mother turned successful artist entrepreneur. It wasn't that long ago though that I lacked the confidence, vision and support network to focus on growing my dream business. Fast forward past many life curveballs, waves of self-doubt and so many lessons learned and you'll see Ignite, my thriving online colour pencil artists community, a community that changes members lives for the better and gives me freedom to live abundantly whilst doing what I love and spending quality time with my beloved family and dogs, all whilst creating my best artwork with coloured pencils, and mentoring others to do the same. But this life wasn't always how it was for me, it used to only exist in my imagination. I've created the It's a Bonny Old Life podcast to help increase people's confidence, share mine and my communities experience and hope through fascinating personal stories, champion the other amazing humans in my personal, professional and membership community, and create another channel through which I can support others to realize their dreams. If you're a passionate colour pencil artist, or an aspiring one who's looking to create their best work, and a joyful life you love, you're in the right place. Grab a cuppa and a custard cream, let's get cracking.
I follow my next guest on Instagram and was really, really intrigued with the subject that she draws. Basically, it's chickens and I absolutely love what she does. I've been following her for a while and I contacted her. I said, "Can we have a chat?" And do you know what? It was so lovely. I've never met her before. I've spoken to her before. And we have had the loveliest chat about horses and childhood and chickens and bringing up children and all of that kind of stuff. And it was really, really lovely. So, I'm delighted to introduce my next guest, Rebekah Marshall.
Rebekah 01:54
Hello. Are you all right?
Bonny Snowdon 01:57
I’m fine thank you. Finally. I'm going to restart my Mac to put your Zoom on. And then as soon as you pop up, I for some reason, close the meeting and I started it again. I'm so sorry.
Rebekah 02:10
It’s all right. These things happen. I can't believe because I haven't seen you for ages. And I got on there and said this is that update now you have to reinstall the whole stuff.
Bonny Snowdon 02:22
Oh, these things are sent to try, aren't they?
Rebekah 02:24
Yeah.
Bonny Snowdon 02:27
Well, it's lovely to meet you.
Rebekah 02:29
Yes, and you. It's really strange because I listen to your podcast every week and obviously followed you for a long time. So, it just seems really funny to have a chat.
Bonny Snowdon 02:41
Well, I have to apologize for how I look. So, I've been swimming this morning. I'm trying to go swimming regularly. Once I've gone, I'm just like nothing compared to it. It's just brilliant. So, I've been swimming, then I've been out photographing a dog. So, I've just met someone in a park, we just tried to get in with the rain and everything. And we managed to get some nice photos. So, that was good. But I spent about half an hour trying to find my walking shoe because the puppy had hidden it while eating it. So, on the back of it, it's all been chewed. Oh God, honestly, my life is just one big --
Rebekah 03:25
It's animals though, isn't it? Children and animals, they just do it.
Bonny Snowdon 03:29
I know. So, I absolutely love your Instagram and what you do, because you just draw one subject don't you? Well, you paint one subject, so you deal with one subject.
Rebekah 03:42
Yeah, at the moment I do. It sorts of started I think just before lockdown, I think it was the summer before we went into lockdown that I drew some chickens. And because we've got chickens at home. So, I drew some and everyone seemed to go nuts for them. So, then I just carried on drawing them and it just sort of went like that. But before that I have just been doing coloured pencil animal portraits. But the reason I switched over to doing sort of the digital style, because mainly digital watercolour type work is because it was so much easier at the time to manage around the kids. Because it was taking a week sort of to do. So, I did portraits and doing it. And so, you know what it's like when you've only got an hour to work, it can be quite disheartening, the colour pencil because you look back and you’ve done nothing, maybe three days or something. Whereas with the digital work, it's so much quicker.
Bonny Snowdon 04:41
So, are your children all school age?
Rebekah 04:46
They are seven. Well, he's almost the [Inaudible] that he's at preschool now. So, he's been at preschool for about six months.
Bonny Snowdon 04:57
But obviously the lockdown you’ve worked --
Rebekah 05:00
Yeah, full time home. And I have done a few colour pencil pieces since while I've been doing all digital work, but it's been very much sort of the odd one here and there from people that have known me from work I've done before for them who've then come back and said, Can you do this? Rather than advertising.
Bonny Snowdon 05:01
So then since I guess it's just before lockdown when you started to do the digital stuff. Youve then built up your Etsy shop and all of the stuff that you sell in there which is doing really well.
Rebekah 05:34
Yeah, it's been a really interesting experiment for one of us sort of a better word. Because when I was doing all the portrait work, I loved the colour pencil portraits, but I was finding it a bit limiting because you're doing the work, but you're working to someone else's brief aren't you? Brief all the time. And especially if you don't have time to explore and to do your own work, then it can feel quite restrictive. And I'm someone who's got lots of ideas in my head. I still I've got ideas in my head for colour pencil pieces that I want to do, but I've just never had time to do them. And then that can get you down after some time, even though I love doing the pet portraits. So, then I was thinking, well, I'd really like to experiment a bit more with my artwork. And so, the digital work allowed me to do that, because it was such a quicker medium. And that meant that I had time to explore and go down the product route, rather than just the portrait. But the downside of that is that I spent so much time packing down now. So, it's like I can easily spend all the time I have in the week packing order, and not actually doing any artwork.
Bonny Snowdon 06:56
Have you thought about delegating the packaging and getting somebody in to do it for you?
Rebekah 07:00
I have. I have thoughts about that. And especially last year, because this year, purposely, I didn't order a lot of stocking for Christmas this year, which I would have normally done. Last year was crazy. I was packing all day and then packing all night. It was wonderful but it was also really stressful. Last year I was thinking, do I want to push this more, if I do push it more, I am looking at, I need to have an office in the garden, I need to have help, and all that sort of thing. So, that was great. But that’s actually come back to what I'm thinking about now, is I really want to go back to more of the commission work but allowing myself space to create my own work as well. Because I don't want to pack orders all day. And I don't want to do the trade shows. And actually, it's lovely having wholesale customers. And I do enjoy selling work in shops. But again, I get it back to a really tiny group of shops that I now sell to that are lovely. But I don't want to be packing wholesale orders constantly. Because that's just another huge amount of time. Printing greetings cards, putting them in those envelopes. It's hours and hours and hours of just putting them in the envelopes.
Bonny Snowdon 08:16
I did do prints for a while. And I did do prints where I would have them printed and sent here and then I would ship them out. I really am very averse to packaging in any shape or form. I absolutely can’t do it. And I'm very much a person of I know what I like doing. And I know what I don't like doing. So, I stopped doing the print side of stuff. And even when I sent, I did like a tutorial kickbox a couple of years ago, it was 2019, 2020, I think. And I had to package those. It nearly killed me. Honestly it was just like this, I can think of so much better things to be doing with my time. And that's actually one of the things that I've really learned from building, because I've obviously built my business up. And I've learned that actually, a really, really good thing to do is to put a value on your time. And then say, well, how much does it cost me?
Is it really worth packaging for an hour when my time is worth 300 quid an hour foreign currency? Then it starts to really kind of go, "Oh, hang on a second, no." For me, that's when it's a really, really good time to go, "Well, I'm going to get somebody part time then or somebody who's just going to come and help me do the packaging, so that I can then go and do the stuff that actually earns all of the money." My mind works like that anyway, I'll delegate everything. Half my time. I just want to do that. So, if it's that stopping you from growing and doing more, I definitely say look into somebody helping you or get this job for somebody or something to do it.
Rebekah 10:09
I did look at getting like a centre to do it somewhere in another place to do it. But the issue I had was that I couldn't find anywhere that we do have all the products in the same place. So, someone put an order on through the shop. So, it would be sort of tea towels coming from one place and other things coming from another place. And then that would be quite restrictive and a pain in the bum in terms of postage and packaging. I did look into it. And actually, there was a local company that's owned by a friend of mine. And they offered to do it for me. But we looked into the logistics of it all and we couldn't make it straightforward. Because they could do a lot of things, but they couldn't do the art prints. And people generally order art prints from me at the same time.
Bonny Snowdon 10:19
Do you do your own printing?
Rebekah 11:00
Yeah. So, I do my own prints at home at the moment. Because it's more of an illustration style I use a photo printer, goes out on a really very nice paper. It gets packaged, I've got all packaging at home. But if I was doing fine art prints, I wouldn't do that. So, I'd say I've been doing this for about -- probably since I have my daughter at seven years. And I've sort of tried out quite a few different things, just to see what would fit. And it’s sort of been a massive learning curve. And I feel like I'm settling down with what would actually work now, which is I think I'll be going back to commission work, but we're leaving space for my own experiments. And I do want to sell wholesale a little bit. And I do want to sell prints because you can get these companies, can't you? That will print the prints for you and send them out. If you're only doing fine art prints, I think that's a great way to do it. So, maybe that route. I think, because I just don't want to pack all the time. I don't think it's consistent enough to hire someone properly to do it. I think it's very up and down. Especially at the moment. Who knows how the next year is going to go?
Bonny Snowdon 12:20
It is. It's true. And I guess if you're going to do the wholesale stuff, at least you know that somebody's going to order this amount. So, they're going to order all of them, you get them ready, put them all together, and off they go. I guess they go to like farm shops and stuff like that.
Rebekah 12:38
They go to farm shops, and there's quite a lot of little farm shops, but there's also Daylesford and Cotswolds, they stopped my cards and gift wrap, which is really nice. So, that's good. And I think there's a lot of lovely farm shops near me that I'd like to approach I haven't had the chance to do it yet. But at the same time, I don't want to get stuck with just packaging wholesale orders. Trying to make the art as a business work is sort of working things out.
Bonny Snowdon 13:11
It really is. Do you ever use someone like a business coach or something like that to put your ideas? I found that was one of the best things I ever did.
Rebekah 13:26
I've thought about it a lot.
Bonny Snowdon 13:28
Because it almost makes you think a little bit more clearly. We're obviously very different because my income comes majority from my teaching. And when I started to think about the Academy membership and everything, I had a really clear idea in my head about what I wanted it to look like and how I wanted it to work. And ultimately, I was going to build it all myself. I was just going to go right; this is what I'm going to do. I was going to get somebody to help me with the back end of it. And what I ended up doing not by mistake, but by chance was working with almost like a membership specialist. Which was also like a business Cochi type person. And we just started right from the beginning again. Which was quite scary, because I hadn't thought that I was going to go down that road. I'd got it in my head.
I was like, this is what I'm doing. And then she was like, "No, we're just going to pull the whole thing apart and we're just going to go through it again and see exactly how you're going to do it." And it's turned out very different to how I anticipated it. But it's been incredibly successful. And I don't think it would be like it is if I hadn't have gone down that having somebody else. It's almost like a different take on things you know to mean? And then they can ask you questions and when you're in that two-way conversation where somebody is asking you a question, you're actually having to think about it. Because I don't know whether you are like me, I just tend to have stuff going on my head. Just round and round in my head
Rebekah 15:07
Constantly.
Bonny Snowdon 15:10
Yes, we could do this. And then a really great idea and then it's gone. And I've completely forgotten what the idea was.
Rebekah 15:18
Yeah. And there's just so many. When I talk to my husband a lot about it, or there's just so many ways you could move things. And it's just trying to figure out what's the best. And not only what's the best for business, but what's the best for your life right now as well.
Bonny Snowdon 15:36
Absolutely, especially if you've got family and children and animals and stuff like that as well. Do you live on a farm? And if you've got chickens, or you just got --
Rebekah 15:46
No, we live in a village at the bottom of the Quantock hills in Somerset, and we are just outside the village. Which is really nice, because we were sort of surrounded by fields, which is lovely. And we've got a largeish garden. Big beds patch area, and 13 chickens. One very noisy dog, you might hear at some point. And a big Pony shaped hole where something needs to go in there.
Bonny Snowdon 16:16
Oh, gosh.
Rebekah 16:18
Yeah, I need to get pony at some point again. But yeah.
Bonny Snowdon 16:22
Oh, gosh. Have had horses been a part of your life for quite a long time then?
Rebekah 16:28
Yeah always. I started riding when I was six. And then because that's what my parents thought it would be safe enough to learn. So, battering for years before that. And then finally started riding at six. And then rode all throughout childhood and in my teens. I didn't ever have my own pony. But we moved around a lot. My dad was in the army, but rode lots of other people's very naughty ponies. Yeah, when I was 27, I think I bought my first horse. And had horses up until I had my second child. And then I took a bit of a break. The horse I had at the time he was on loan with you to buy. And he just kept going lame. He had loads of problems. And then had everything done. And he had arthritis, like everywhere. So, sad. He was amazing. Such a lovely horse, like, perfect in every way. But he just constantly went lame. And he was only 10. And he was very green. So, it was just such a big shame. So, he went back to his owner and he i still with his owner now and living very happily. So, we just decided that that was a good time to have a little break. But very keen to get another one.
Bonny Snowdon 17:38
Yeah, I see. I was very similar. I started riding probably properly riding at six. We were lucky enough to live probably about 10 minutes away from the Yorkshire Riding Centre with the battles. So, I learned to ride with them. Gosh, there was a great guy called Les. It was absolutely brilliant. And you just had pens of ponies. They just had the ponies in pens. They didn't have them in separate stables. But it was brilliant. And I rode right up until I sold mine in 2016. It just gets to a point, doesn't it? I would love horses again, I really would. But it gets to a point where it's just like, oh my goodness, having a life and running a family and having a job. And then also before all of that happens, you've got the horses to sort out and after all of that happens, you've got the horses to sort out. During the summer it's lovely but in the winter, it is hard work.
Rebekah 18:46
It is yeah, they're not easy. I think my husband he's been hoping that they just disappeared. The idea of the horse disappears. Whenever I say right, we have seen this horse he goes very quiet.
Bonny Snowdon 19:05
Do you know for some reason I keep on getting horse quest adverts up on my Facebook? Maybe it's a sign. I saw the most beautiful chocolate dun Clydesdale cross.
Rebekah 19:16
Oh, nice.
Bonny Snowdon 19:17
Oh, my goodness. I don't know how much it was going for. But it was what a beautiful horse. That's my kind of something a bit sort of shaggy. I wanted it in the past and a big one. Well, I did dressage and I did [Inaudible]. But yeah, now my kind of I'm thinking are quite like a battle pony just to plot around the roads on.
Rebekah 19:47
Actually, I still own a horse. I've got a shire cross cob who's out. Who's been out on loan for seven and a half years now. Because when I got pregnant my husband had to horses and my husband said, one's got to go. Because you're going to stop work and we can't have two horses. So, he went out on loan then and he's not far away. It's about an hour away with a lovely chap, and he's very well looked after and loved and he's got a really nice life. And so, he's not coming back. But he is technically still checking on him, but he's not coming back, but he's amazing. That sounds like the kind of horse you want.
Bonny Snowdon 20:28
Yeah, something that won’t spook at everything.
Rebekah 20:32
Right. Yeah, he's almost asleep constantly. He's just lovely. I really like native ponies. They are my thing.
Bonny Snowdon 20:45
Yes. Well, I'm very close to, I don’t know whether you follow Laura Pennell. She's another artist.
Rebekah 20:50
Yeah.
Bonny Snowdon 20:51
Yeah, so they live in Richmond which is just up from me. And they breed Dale's ponies.
Bonny Snowdon 20:58
They are dale ponies but the Lipner Dales. They always hosting everything, beautiful ponies. But they've also got a couple of Clydesdales as well. I've been at one so she keeps on inviting me up to go and take photos. Because they are foals and visiting theirs. And they have the most beautiful place where they have parkland and everything. So, I need to go visit her again, I think.
Rebekah 20:58
Oh, nice.
Rebekah 21:23
It like their own children.
Bonny Snowdon 21:25
Yeah. Why do you love a pony? It's the smell of them, isn't it? That's why I miss the most.
Rebekah 21:31
Yeah, the mains and the smell. It's not so much the riding, it’s just looking after them. Because even when I had my daughter and I set to take her with me all the time to the yard. I could never ride with her there. But we could feed the horses and we could put hay in for them and then just sit and eat a sandwich and watch them eat their hay. It's so relaxing.
Bonny Snowdon 21:56
Yeah, it is. And I think it's quite mindful, isn't it? When you're around horses? I don't know, they say that the horse is a window or a mirror. So, a lot of your emotions will be mirrored with the horse. I did some coaching around horses as well, sort of riders and things and helping them to be at one with their horses, which was quite interesting. But yeah, I do miss mine. I do miss my horses. Luckily, I get to draw them quite a lot. So, that's good.
Rebekah 22:29
Yeah, it does help drawing horses, I think it. It does help when you're missing them. It really does. So, to say, I do think that something I've thought about it for quite a long time is that, you were saying about the mindfulness. You know, when you're riding, as long as you're hacking, you're sort of daydreaming off into whatever sometimes. But there is something very mindful about riding. Especially if you're riding in an arena, as well. When you're really thinking about the length the strides horses taking. The aids weaving the horse and the communication between the horse and rider. There's something so mindful about that. And you're so in the moment, that it's just so relaxing, as well as being exciting. There's something about it, that's just lovely. And it's the same, I think with coloured pencil when you're drawing. When you get really into that zone of just really concentrating on all those layers and all the details. It's the same thing that I remember getting with horse riding. It's the same. It's like being in the zone. It's that sort of --
Bonny Snowdon 22:29
Touch low, isn't it?
Rebekah 22:30
Yeah. And I think it's so good for your mental health. I think it’s so good. And that's something I don't get with the digital work. Because the digital work is so much quicker. I often feel it's very much sort of like it's almost the same. The sort of the scrolling online. That sort of like quick. It's like a quick hit of something. That kind of like, I've done that bit. It's done. And it's not the same. It's not the same mindfulness and the same relaxation you get into when you're doing colour pencil, the very different thing. I've often thought about that.
Bonny Snowdon 24:13
It's very much a part of I think why I love colour pencil so much anyway, there's that whole mindfulness thing. And I also think I bring a lot of like the confidence and mindset and all of that kind of stuff into my teaching. I think colour pencil is brilliant for anybody struggling with mental health issues. It's the concentration, the move in your hand, and the not having the capacity to be able to think outside of what you're doing, because it's all kind of encompassed. I don't know where I go, I just drift off on when I’m drawing. Maybe on a part where I don't have to concentrate, I'm particularly hard. And it will almost be like I kind of wake up and I think, why me? But it's the most fantastic thing because anything that you're worried about, it just disappears.
Rebekah 25:13
It just goes.
Bonny Snowdon 25:15
And creativity I think, as a whole. And lockdown was awful. It was really awful and horrible things happened and it has affected people in a huge way. But also, it was brilliant because an awful lot of people got back to doing creative stuff. They realize that you know what? Life is actually worth living and I want to start singing again or I want to start painting or drawing or anything like that. And I think a lot of people have got back into being creative. Have you always been creative?
Rebekah 25:54
Yeah. I drew constantly as a child, like constantly. And also, my teens like every single night just drawing, drawing, drawing. Filling sketchbooks with pictures. And I was remembering actually a while ago, I remembered about this Montezuma GCSEs, I spent a lot of time drawing pencil animals, but just from art. I just remember I drew this really big picture of a pig. Which I don't know why. I'm not that into pigs. But it was so detailed. And I really loved it. I was really proud of it. But then I sort of forgot about all that and went off and I did a Fine Art degree. I don't think I drew at all at that university. Which is very sort of conceptual. Fine art and more about what you could write about something rather than actually learning any sort of techniques or traditional ways of doing things, which is a big shame, I think. But I've always drawn. I remember when I was a child, people used to ask me to draw their pets, and then often they were all just horses and I draw the pictures for people and then give it to them at break time.
Rebekah 25:57
I drew as a child. I loved horses as a child. I thought I was a horse. I really did. I didn't have any knees in my trousers. Always on my hands and knees and just like setting up jumps in the garden.
Rebekah 27:28
I was doing that.
Bonny Snowdon 27:30
Making horse noises. Apparently, I was really good at making horse neighs and everything. [Inaudible] total horse. And I absolutely lived and breathed horses. And I was very lucky. How old was I? I think I was probably about 10. I did get a pony. But it was one that was a riding school pony. It was at Yorkshire Riding Centre. And he was kept there. And I could just go up at weekends and book him out on a weekend. And I could bring him home. We had a stable at home and one of the farmers let us have a field. And I think about it now and I'm like, Oh my god. So, I'd ride the pony home. Through all of the plantations. I'd be planning all the things that meet a friend we'd have sandwiches, no pockets. Ten, probably about 15 miles. Ride Home, and then he'd stay home for a week. And I just let him out in this field. Because he'd been stabled over the time, I couldn't catch him then.
Rebekah 28:40
No chance.
Bonny Snowdon 28:40
He is like that French and Saunders clip.
Rebekah 28:46
I love it that episode.
Bonny Snowdon 28:46
That was me.
Rebekah 28:50
Brilliant. It's amazing when you look back, isn’t it? Because I remember being about eight or nine and just have excited to write this. It was my dad's bosses, his daughters like 30-year-old Welsh mountain pony. And I used to get to ride on the weekends and look after him. And I just remember going off riding by myself for hours. Across the Welsh hills, like going through gates jumping things.
Bonny Snowdon 29:15
Oh my god jumping? While trying to jump things.
Rebekah 29:18
Jumping everything.
Bonny Snowdon 29:21
We're pointing them at something and we think jump it.
Rebekah 29:25
Falling off a lot.
Bonny Snowdon 29:26
Yeah. Always falling. Because we used to live in Pateley bridge which is up in the North Yorkshire Moors. And I remember riding on the top and actually getting sucked down into a bog. And literally, I was up to my feet and he was about 14'3 I think. And having to get off and literally drag him off. And his shoe got sucked off. Obviously, no phone no nothing. I had to leave my phone and then try and get a farrier to come out and put the shoe on. Oh my god, honestly. And now I’m terrified. My children sort of set off in the morning. My children are a bit older. They'll set off in the morning and I'd be like, where are they? And my mum didn't see me for hours and hours an hour she had no idea what I was doing and where I was.
Rebekah 30:20
It is different, isn't it? I think maybe I don't know. Yeah, it does seem different nowadays. Because I wouldn't. I would no way let my daughter go off on a pony.
Bonny Snowdon 30:28
No way. Even though my youngest is just ventured off. He's driving now. And he went off to Newcastle to meet his mates who were at university. And he's a bit naughty, because he never texts me and won't let me have my Find My iPhone on his phone either. So, he often drops on a Saturday morning, and then I don't hear from him again until like Sunday afternoon. I'm like, where is he? What's he doing? Yeah, apparently just been partying and been in a mosh pit or something and leaping around. Probably better. I don't know anything about him.
Rebekah 31:06
I used to be scrolling Instagram and everything else, whatever is there like, traces? Where have you been?
Bonny Snowdon 31:14
My daughter, I've got her on Find My iPhone now. Because I went to pick her up in Harrogate a couple of years ago now. And she wasn't where she said she was going to be. And the friend that she was out with, had got her phone and her bag. And her drink had been spied. And she'd gone out of the pub that they were in and just wandered off. And I eventually call the police and she was in a hospital that she'd fallen over in a flower bed outside McDonald's. It's funny now, but at the time, I was beside myself. And it was during lockdown so they wouldn't let me in to see her. And I just had an absolute meltdown. And eventually they let me in to go and see how I was just shouting and screaming at them. It was awful. Absolutely awful. So, now I've said to her, you just have to have, I need to know where you are.
Rebekah 32:05
My husband has got that on his phone, I track him. I like to know where he is, we track each other. But it's because he works in TV. So, he works away a lot. And it's just quite nice. Because I never know. For quite often if he finishes the shoot quite late, it's quite hard to find out where he is at certain times. So, I can be like, okay, now he's up a mountain in Scotland right now. So, he's not going to be home till tomorrow. It's much easier.
Bonny Snowdon 32:38
What does he do then?
Rebekah 32:39
He got an aerial filming company. We've got a lot of drones in the workshop attached to the house. He does adverts, films, documentaries, music videos, lots of BBC, some things for Disney. He's done some big Disney things.
Bonny Snowdon 33:02
Fascinating.
Rebekah 33:06
It's a really interesting job. And he's done so well, bless him, he's done so well with that. But his work obviously really affects my work. Because he doesn't have a schedule, basically. Because TV shoots and film shoots, they change and they move around a lot. And we never know when something's going to start or end or anything. So, it's sort of on me to look after the children. So, that has really had an effect on what work that I take on. Because I don't do art markets anymore and that's one of the reasons because I never know if he's going to be around on the weekend, or, or whether I'm going to have a Friday night to prepare things. So, I just have to make sure that I can manage my work.
Bonny Snowdon 33:56
Yeah, I get that. Sometimes you can end up feeling a little bit grumpy about that kind of thing. It's just, he's got his work, you've got yours and I guess you just get on with it, do you?
Rebekah 34:12
Yeah, we do. And there is time, so especially when he's away a lot and I can get quite grumpy about it. But at the end of the day, he works for himself. If it's busy, it's good. It just benefits us all as a family. So, I just have to think. I think the thing is, when you've got children, especially young children, because I could do a lot more. I could do art markets every weekend. I could do big shows. But I would have to have childcare for all of that. And I can't rely on my husband. It would have to be probably paid childcare in some form because our family don't live anywhere near us. So, it would have to be paid childcare. And then I wouldn't see them as much. Especially when they're so young. Because they're at school a week. Preschool and school. I don't spend the weekends not seeing them either.
Bonny Snowdon 35:15
I was very lucky when my children were younger that I could work from home. Obviously, I work from home now. But I worked for Aviva. I was a studio manager. And I actually was able to work from home when they were really little, which was amazing. Absolutely amazing. And it is a really wonderful time, because my youngest is 18, and my eldest is 23. And it feels like yesterday, when they were little tiny. And it goes so quickly.
Rebekah 35:54
Yeah, it does.
Bonny Snowdon 35:56
Actually, it's so nice. Sometimes, I imagine, and I know I was the same. Sometimes it's like, "Oh, my God, I just want to get away from these children." But when you look back on it you think how blessed I was to be able to spend that time with them. And it is really nice. Yeah, you do have to sacrifice stuff and things like that. But it's what's the priority, isn't it?
Rebekah 36:22
Yeah. And that's something that I think I'm so grateful. I love doing my artwork, I'm so grateful that I can do it. Because it does mean that I can go to the Christmas carol coffee morning. My son is in preschool and I can go to my daughter's nativity. I can pick them up, and I can drop them off. Sometimes my husband does that if he's home, and I get a bit more time to work. But I can do that. And before I did this full time, I was teaching full time. And there is no way I would have had time off to do anything for my kids, if I was still teaching full time, it just wouldn't happen.
Bonny Snowdon 37:03
Did you teach in a preschool or secondary school or?
Rebekah 37:07
It was a special needs school for children from 6 to 19. And I had a class of 14 to 19-year-olds. So, I was around younger ones. But my specialist area was the older children. And my teaching qualification it's in what you call, post 16 education. So, I was it was 16 to 19. But I did have some younger, down to 14, in the class. But I was leaving the house at seven and I wasn't getting home till seven. And when I looked at going back after maternity, my daughter would have had to be at nursery from seven till seven, then Monday to Friday. And I was already doing my artwork, because I had done the fine art degree. I had been taking art commissions since then, but during the school holidays, just very loosely. So, I had that already. I'm already doing pet portraits for people. That's already going well, I wasn't charging very much, but I knew I could build on it. So, I just decided, well, I won't go back to teaching, but I'll just do what I can with this. And when we worked out the finances of it, I only needed to make 200 pounds a month to make what I'd be making as a full-time teacher with my child in nursery from seven till seven. It was just after I would have paid for all the nursery fees, I would be like a 200 pounds a month. Well, if I can make 200 pounds a month which I could easily with pet portraits then I'm winning. Why would I go back right now? It just didn't make sense. So, that's what I did.
Bonny Snowdon 38:51
Actually, when you can work something out like that is pretty brilliant, isn't it? Because you ended up doing stuff that you really love to do?
Rebekah 39:02
Yeah, exactly. And I was more than happy. Straightaway she'd go down for a nap, work. She'd get good sleep at night. And she was a terrible sleeper and a terrible napper. But I still did it. And it was still doable. So, it's worked out well really.
Bonny Snowdon 39:16
Brilliant. So, you're going back to the more mission side of stuff?
Rebekah 39:21
Yeah, I think so. I do enjoy doing products. A couple of wholesalers they are a bit disappointed. Wholesale customers are a bit disappointed this year that I wasn't doing certain things. And I think maybe what I'll do is maybe keep it. Just get stock in certain things just for those wholesale customers and not as a general. I have a shop open all the time. Because otherwise I spent too much time packing and I'd really like to do more drawing.
Bonny Snowdon 39:51
Definitely. I’m with you on that. I've just taken on my second full time employee. So, it's funny. I've got my vision board here next to me. And I've got a studio in the garden. And my studio was built, and they're in it. At least he doesn't work on a Friday, Amy is down there. And they do all of the backend stuff, the email marketing, there's some social media help all of that kind of stuff. And it's just absolutely wonderful that I've got people who I can rely on, so that I can do the stuff that I really want to do, which is the drawing. That's what I love to do. I love to do drawing, and I love to do the teaching. And I don't want to be fiddling around with web sites. I don't want to be doing that. And actually, it's been really incredible. Plus, I've been able to employ two local young women. Which is awesome.
Amy is fresh out of university. This is her first or second job. And so, she's a complete blank canvas. She wants to get into marketing, but didn't have the experience. So, we've said, right, perfect. We can just teach you. Which is great. And she's got that right kind of head on her shoulder. She's a really lovely girl. And Lucy who's been working with me for two years now. She's amazing. She's blooming. Lucy is organized, she's so organized. Well, is what I need. Because I'm so chaotic. It's unbelievable how chaotic I am. And of course, I'm writing my book as well. So, I need time to be able to write, which I have to say, I'm loving. Absolutely loving. It's not a drawing book. It's a book around how I've gained my confidence and how I've changed stuff around. But what I hadn't realized was that when I'm writing it, I'm going back into my childhood. So, I'm talking about my ponies and talking about when I used to do elocution at school, and how to get them put into these. You're like, you've been put into the Wharfedale festival or the Harrogate festival, you're going to have to go and say a poem on the stage when you're like seven. I'm kind of thinking of all these things that really knocked my confidence. It actually gave me strategies to be able to cope with. So, it's been really nice. It's almost like my memoirs; it's been really nice writing it.
Rebekah 42:33
It's lovely, isn't it? And also, you can see the progression of what you're doing in terms of, you've got your artwork, and your portraits and the teaching and the Academy and then you did your first book, didn't you? With the colour pencil and like the next level. This is like going in depth to know what's made you who you are, and confidence building, which is what everyone needs as well to help talk about.
Bonny Snowdon 43:00
You know, it's fascinating how much you know. Because I've got a fabulous coach who's helping me with the book. She's an author. She's like, you need 10 chapters, and in each chapter, you need about six and a half thousand, 7000 words. And I'm like, I don't have that number of words in my head. But of course, when you start writing, or when you start thinking about stuff, I'm like, "Oh, my God, I could write 10 books."
Rebekah 43:28
Because you never thought it's in your head. It's just experiences. And what you've taken on board over the years, it's there?
Bonny Snowdon 43:37
Definitely. Really, I've never done anything like this. And I'm really enjoying doing it. I really enjoy doing it. Again, it's quite a mindful exercise just sitting and typing away. But cool. So, commissions next for you and --
Rebekah 43:57
I'd love to enter cup competitions. So, I'd do some competitions. I think that would give me a focus as well. A bit more like this is happening, and it's being by this deadline. Even if it's sort of three a year or something. That's like, well, three of my own pieces a year. And the rest can be Commission's. As far as products go, I think maybe just towards Christmas calendars, and a few things like that, but not as a general thing. Because I could be contacting all the farm shops to having lots of wholesale clients and could be hiring staff. And I can see how that would go. And I've had a lot of people constantly from America saying they'd like to have my products on wholesale over there. But it's just requires taking everything so much bigger and having so much more going on. And I think at the moment with the kids being so little. And I just want to keep things quite simple. But also, I want to make it better but simpler. So, much higher quality. But simpler. So, I’m really focused.
Bonny Snowdon 45:19
Yeah, simples are always good. And especially if you did eventually want to grow your business. Sometimes when you go all right, yeah, okay, I'll do that. And it's like, scrambling around, getting this ready, getting that ready. Actually, having a really great process, almost like a machine that just works. And if that's plumbed in to growth, that's always a good thing.
Rebekah 45:47
Yeah. And just looking at stages, isn't it? So, like keeping things really simple now, but maybe when the children are a bit older then it's okay. Well, now, that's the time to push things a bit more. But I'm really proud of how things have gone the past few years, because I've done better than I thought. If I could look back seven years ago, when I was just doing pet portraits with 60 pounds, here and there, and handing them to people in like little brown envelopes to where I am now, I am earning what it would be as a part time teacher maybe a bit more. And it's just, that's what I need now. That's it. That's all I need to do. And I'm really proud. Seven years ago, I would have been thinking, well, if I get to that point, I'd be so happy. And that is where I am. I just need to refine things now, I think.
Bonny Snowdon 46:43
I think looking back as well and thinking, where I am now was my dream. That's amazing. And I've got quality time to spend with my children when I do something that I love that. That is like, you can't get much better than that. Can you really?
Rebekah 47:01
Yeah. I had a friend I think it was couple of years ago, and I had a quite a difficult client and most of my clients have been fantastic. But I've had quite a difficult client who was saying, I want this, you know, lots of changes. But this is coloured pencil. I’ll do all these drawings and we can't keep it. Anyway, I'd had a bit of a moment to tell to her about this customer and my friend said, Yeah, it's all really tough, but you get to draw things and people pay you. And I said, Yeah, I know. When you think about some people hate their jobs.
Rebekah 47:39
i have a friend who just hates her job. You're right, actually, yeah, it's one bad customer.
Bonny Snowdon 47:39
I know.
Bonny Snowdon 47:45
And actually, those customers teach us something they teach us to set boundaries. You take a customer on and you go, okay, these are my terms. I don't make changes. I've done that with a couple of pieces I've just done. I need to tell you; I don't make changes. Once I turn the tone. We agree a composition. That's it. And it's not me being harsh or anything like that. If you've got an oil painting, you can just [ Inaudible] on top of it. But if you start tinkering with a finished colour pencil piece, you're going to ruin it.
Rebekah 48:26
Yeah, definitely.
Bonny Snowdon 48:30
So, I think always I see the difficult people in life has been there to teach me a lesson that I need to learn.
Rebekah 48:40
Yeah, definitely.
Bonny Snowdon 48:41
Yeah. Boundaries. And if they keep coming back, it's because I haven't learned the lesson.
Rebekah 48:46
Yeah. And the boundaries are so important. But also, just you not feeling bad for having boundaries. That's something that I need to learn not.
Bonny Snowdon 48:55
Well, yeah, I've struggled with that major.
Rebekah 48:59
Me too. Just it's confidence, isn't it?
Bonny Snowdon 49:02
Yeah. And being able to say, no.
Rebekah 49:05
Yeah, that's not right.
Bonny Snowdon 49:07
Or actually stick up for yourself.
Rebekah 49:13
Yeah, I mean, turning down customers with terrible photos that's quite hard to do. But I find it much easier now. At the start, that was really hard. I drew some awful pictures based on awful photos. And they've done very well, but you're like whoa.
Bonny Snowdon 49:32
Sometimes they work out quite nicely. And sometimes I quite like a relatively poor photo because I don't have to concentrate on the details. But some are so poor that it's just like you can't make out the art. You can't make out anything. It's just a blob in a field somewhere.
Rebekah 49:48
It takes so much longer to then researching dogs that look similar.
Bonny Snowdon 49:51
You go hours and hours and hours on google. I'm just going to go out and photograph a dog that is similar one. I don't know. Well, you know, I've loved chatting to you it's been really nice learning a little bit more about you and your business and a little bit about your life and everything as well. And I hope you do get your pony shaped hole with something.
Rebekah 50:21
Next year.
Bonny Snowdon 50:22
If he is away just go out and get one.
Rebekah 50:24
I know. It's kind of he keeps saying, I'm going to come home it will just be one. You'll have one. Well, kind of that's what happened with the chicken.
Bonny Snowdon 50:36
It just arrived.
Rebekah 50:39
I know. So, I just went and got two and then he will say, "Oh, well, they didn't give us many eggs. Let's get some more." I say, "Yeah, let's get more."
Bonny Snowdon 50:50
Oh, well, it's been really lovely chatting to you. We'll have to do it again. You know, when I chat to people, you think, I wish you live around the corner and then I could come meet your chickens and have a cup of tea?
Rebekah 51:03
Lovely. Yeah.
Bonny Snowdon 51:07
And I wish you all the best in shifting over a little bit to the commission side of stuff. Which I'm sure will be absolutely fantastic. But thank you ever so much for taking the time to chat to me. We'll hopefully speak again soon.
Rebekah 51:21
Yes, definitely. Thanks, Bonny.
Bonny Snowdon 51:22
Thanks, Rebekah. Bye.
Rebekah 51:22
Bye.
Bonny Snowdon 51:22
I really hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of my It's a Bonny Old Life podcast. If you did, I'd be so grateful to you for emailing me or texting a link to the show, or sharing it on social media with those who might like it too. My mission with this podcast is all about sharing mine and my communities experience and hope by telling your fascinating personal stories, championing the other amazing humans in my personal, professional and membership community, and to create another channel through which I can support you to realize your coloured pencil and life dreams. If you haven't done so yet. Please help me on my mission to spread positivity and joy throughout the coloured pencil world by following me on my socials at Bonny Snowdon Academy, or by getting on my list at bonnysnowdonacademy.com, and remember, I truly believe if I can live the life of my dreams doing what I love, then you can too. We just need to keep championing and supporting each other along the way in order to make it happen. Till next time.
