Page 61 - Eclipse - Autumn/Winter 2022
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CLASSNOTES

        Turning my art hobby into a business


        Beth Reilly, BVetMed (2017) and PG Dip in Veterinary Clinical Practice (2019)

                                            enough to have a quiet weekend. My   I’ve had the pleasure of working closely
                                            artwork used to sit tucked away in sketch   with the Boltons Park Farm sheep
                                            books, but after receiving requests for   flock for the past few years and I have
                                            drawings of people’s pets, I decided to   snapped plenty of photos of them over
                                            turn my art hobby into something more.   this time! This year, I was tasked to paint
                                                                                the official RVC Christmas card, which
                                            Hopping Duck launched in 2019, initially   was certainly daunting, but I was pleased
                                            as commissions, but has branched    to have the opportunity to paint one
                                            into selling a range of greetings cards   of the shepherdess’s favourite sheep,
                                            and canvas prints. To start with,   ‘Mouse’, into the picture.
                                            commissions were only going to friends
                                            and colleagues, but paintings have   To anyone with a passion/interest in
                                            now travelled to Ireland, Holland and   an area, don’t be put off by being told
                                            Singapore, as well as being entrusted   you can’t do something. I was banned
                                            with friends’ wedding table artwork. In   by an art teacher at school from using
                                            the past year, cards and canvases have   watercolour or painting animals in
                fter graduating from the
                RVC in 2017, I started my   been sold through the RVC’s Christmas   GCSE art lessons. I guess, lucky for
                first year in practice working   pop-up shops and Boltons Park Farm’s   me, this meant I did physics A-level
        Aat Cambridge as a production       Egg Shed, as well as at the farm’s Open   instead of art, which led to me pursuing
        animal intern. While working there, I was   Farm Sunday event.          a veterinary career and I then had the
        exposed to a variety of farming systems   This year also saw a large ‘Beauty the   best of both worlds.
        and smallholders, and I learnt that the right  Longhorn’ canvas print auctioned at
        job for me included a mixture of clinical   the National Association for Cattle Foot
        work, teaching and research. Following   Trimmers’ conference, which made over
        this, I moved to Dorset for the RVC   £300 at the charity auction.
        farm internship at Synergy Farm Health,   Throughout my five-year career so far,
        staying there until the end of 2020, before   I’ve been able to tie my love of drawing
        venturing onto a new adventure as a   in with my veterinary work. Whether that
        Teaching Fellow at the RVC.
                                            be painting the cows at both Cambridge
        With the exception of the busy spring   and the RVC, diagrams for teaching, or
        period, on-call weekends were the   painting life-size fibre glass sheep models
        perfect time for drawing when I was lucky  for anatomical teaching references.


        To follow Beth’s artwork, visit:
        Website:  www.hoppingduck.co.uk  |  Instagram:@Hoppingduckcards  |  Facebook: @Hoppingduckcards

































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