Born and brought up Salisbury, where she still lives, mixed media artist Chess was always artistic but never believed that she was good enough to make a living from her work.
Creative through and through, she is also a talented writer, and completed a degree in English, followed by a Creative Writing Masters, at the University of Exeter.
“I’d always drawn and painted, but never really thought of it as a viable career,” she says now. “But I carried on drawing and painting while I was at Exeter, and was a member of the university’s Art Society.”
But in 2014 she was offered the opportunity to exhibit her work at London’s Exhibitionist Hotel, in the heart of Kensington. This unique art-themed hotel, based in restored 18th-century townhouses, showcases the work of up-and-coming artists on a monthly basis.
The reaction to Chess’s remarkable work, which features iconic figures created from original newspaper clippings about them, was so positive that she began to consider a future as a full-time artist.
“Then I met someone at a gallery in Salisbury who was really helpful, and gave me lots of tips on how to get my work gallery-ready, which was so useful,” she says.
“And then I contacted Wishbone, who now represents me – so in the end, it all happened very quickly, really!”
Chess works in a variety of styles but is best known for her newsprint portraits, and it’s those that Artmarket customers can expect to see in a collection called Legacies. It features portraits of icons such as David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury and Princess Leia – keep an eye out for eight new Bowie portraits, which she’s currently working on.